Pogačar signals sterling early season form
Unparalleled climbing strength sees Slovenian take UAE Tour overall,
Tadej Pogačar began his 2022 season where he left off last year, with a convincing win delivered courtesy of an unmatchable sprint. The Slovenian won the UAE Tour, the season’s opening Worldtour race, with two summit sprint wins and a strong time trial performance.
An impressive all-round showing by a strengthened UAE team – new signings João Almeida and Rafał Majka were both aggressive throughout and finished fifth and seventh on GC – in their home race suggests there is little to stop the 23-year-old Pogačar from continuing his domination of stage racing.
In a replay of last year’s race Pogačar secured his 22-second overall win atop the final 10.9km climb of Jebel Hafeet by first holding the wheel of Ineos’s Adam Yates then sprinting past him for the stage win. There was a moment when Pogačar looked pained after two sustained attacks by Yates and it briefly looked like the Briton might manage to crack his rival, but the Slovenian Tour champion held firm – his armour seemingly impenetrable.
“Today we came up short but not through any lack of effort,” Yates said after the final stage. “The first attack I went full gas until I couldn’t go any more. I had a look behind and was hoping [Pogačar] wasn’t there – but it’s pretty hard to drop a double Tour de France winner. I tried again right at the final and I still couldn’t get rid of him. On a finish like this he’s pretty quick in a sprint. All in all I think we can be happy with how we’ve raced – there’s plenty to build on.”
Mark Cavendish was unable to build on his stage two sprint win after a heavy fall on stage four to Jebel Jais. The Quick-step Alphavinyl rider was allowed to continue by doctors but did not contest the sprint on stage five, won by Jasper Philipsen. Cavendish will, however, be encouraged by a subtle change in the position of his boss Patrick Lefevere, who said Quick Step’s Tour team had not yet been selected.
“It’s pretty hard to drop a double Tour de France winner”