After a wild and windy opening stage and Tuesday’s team time trial, the UAE Tour headed into the mountains on Wednesday. Remco Evenepoel took over the race lead from Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) with runner-up bonus seconds, while Movistar’s Einer Rubio earned his first career victory on his birthday. Canada’s Derek Gee came in 51st.
The Course
Jebel Jais was the first categorized climb of the UAE Tour, so whoever conquered the 19-km, 5.6 percent ascent would not only win the stage but also wear the first mountains jersey. Three heavies have won up there: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič.
🇦🇪 #UAETour
The first mountain stage is here, leaving from Fujairah, crossing the desert on the edge of the Hajar mountains, and then heading to Jebel Jais (20km, 5 percent).
📍 Umbrella Beach Al Fujairah ➡️ Jebel Jais
🚩 Start 11:40 local
🏁 Finish ca. 16:30 local
🛣️ 185km pic.twitter.com/8tqKUC1RXx— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) February 22, 2023
Expected to be in the GC mix after his Tour Down Under victory, Jay Vine had to withdraw from the race with a knee injury.
Unfortunately @JayVine3 will not start stage 3 of UAE Tour due to a knee injury.
Vine came into the race with some light knee pain from a training injury which has not improved this week.
It was decided to withdraw him from the event as a precaution to allow him time to recover pic.twitter.com/RpzrOrNlII— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) February 22, 2023
A quartet of escapees rolled up nearly nearly 6:00 gap. Ineos and UAE-Emirates reeled in the last fugitive, Rubio’s teammate Oier Lazcano, with 14 km of Jebel Jais to climb.
The peloton was still large and the grades were too moderate for attacks to stick. Rubio tried his luck with 10 km remaining, teammate Albert Torres leading him out. Rubio was +1:29 at the start of the stage and Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep kept him within hailing distance. Nobody could ping off the front of the 20 strong group, so birthday boy Rubio took the day’s flowers.
Evenepoel is now 7 seconds clear of Plapp at the top of the table, with Pello Bilbao third another 4 seconds back. In coming third, Adam Yates rose 26 places to enter the top 10.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be opportunities for the sprinters before Sunday’s queen stage ending on Jebel Hafeet.
2023 UAE Tour, Stage 3
1) Einer Rubio (Colombia/Movistar) 4:51:24
2) Remco Evenepoel…
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