Yates reaches great heights after third stage victory
UAE TEAM EMIRATES’ POGACAR COMES IN SECOND IN A VALIANT EFFORT
In one of the most impressive finishes to a hill climb, Adam Yates pulled clear of his rivals on the steep ascent of Jebel Hafeet to win the third stage of the 2020 UAE Tour by a little over a minute yesterday.
The 27-year-old Mitchelton Scott rider is making his 2020 seasonal debut in the UAE Tour and his performance over the 184km ‘The Emirates Stage’ has made him favourite to win the second edition of the race.
Yates was unstoppable once he decided to make a dash for the finish with 6km left — breaking from behind UAE Team Emirates young star Tadej Pogacar, Team Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko and Groupama FDJ’s David Gaudu.
Pogacar didn’t bother at the start — leaving Lutsenko and Gaudu to chase after Yates, but he was left to rue that call afterwards as he could only catch the chasers while the Briton kept building on his lead all the way up. At the end of it, Yates pumped his chest with both hands as he crossed the finish alone clocking 4:42:33. Pogacar dejectedly pedalled in 1 min 3 secs later with Lutsenko, Gaudu and Rafal Majka riding in together a further 27 secs adrift. “It’s my first race of the season, so it’s difficult to know how everyone’s going,” said Yates, who was fourth in the general classification at the 2016 Tour de France.
“I just really wanted to test my legs and see where I am so I attacked maybe a little too early, but in the end I felt good.
There were a few guys who started to come up and I could see that they were getting organised. In the end, I felt good and managed to stay away.”
Yates’ overall time after three stages is 12:30:02 and he was surprised at the distance he was able to put between himself and Slovenian Pogacar, who now lags by one minute seven seconds overall. Yates, who took over the Red Jersey from Caleb Ewan, said: “A minute is a lot but we have to do this climb again on Thursday (during Stage 5), and maybe my legs won’t be so good then.
“Also tomorrow, I heard a rumour that there are going to be crosswinds, so we’ll see. I’ve got a good group around me and I’ll try and hold onto the lead as long as possible.”
Ewan holds the green jersey for the General Points classification as he leads with 36, with Black Jersey incumbent (Intermediate Sprint) Veljko Stojnic finished second with 29 and Yates third with 23.
Pogacar topped the young riders’ summit and kept the White Jersey with his time of 12:31:09.
The fourth stage on Wednesday is a flat run over 173 kms, starting at Zabeel Park and culminating at Dubai City Walk.