Tadej Pogačar lived up to his role as favourite on stage 3 of the UAE Tour 2025. The road world champion put the competition in their place after 181 kilometres between Ras al Khaimah and the mountain finish on Jebel Jais. The Slovenian came out on top in the sprint of a small group ahead of Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team).
Pogačar thus also took the overall lead from Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers), who had won the individual time trial the day before. It was also Pogačar's first victory on his new bike, the Colnago Y1Rs, which TOUR had already presented in detail.
UAE Tour 2025: Results of the 3rd stage
Stage 3: Ras al Khaimah - Jebel Jais
UAE Tour 2025: Stage 3, Ras al Khaimah - Jebel Jais
| Rnk. | Riders | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UAE Team Emirates - XRG | 04:36:04 |
| 2 | Team Picnic PostNL | +00:00:00 |
| 3 | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | +00:00:00 |
| 4 | Lotto | +00:00:00 |
| 5 | Lidl - Trek | +00:00:00 |
| 6 | Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe | +00:00:00 |
It's great to win here in the rainbow jersey. Part of me was hoping that Tarling would stay on and keep the leader's jersey. But I'm more than happy to start tomorrow with the leader's jersey instead of the rainbow jersey. - Tadej Pogačar
How the 3rd stage of the UAE Tour 2025 went
A breakaway group used the approximately 140 kilometres of flat approach towards Jebel Jais to show themselves: Đorđe Đurić, Carlos Samudio (both Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini), Federico Biagini, Lorenzo Conforti and Manuele Tarozzi (all three VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè) made their escape shortly after the start. They had no realistic chance of winning the stage. The breakaway group was much more concerned with the intermediate sprint classification, in which Tarozzi still held the lead before the stage. However, he had to surrender this to Samudio after a tough battle.
In the peloton, UAE Team Emirates - XRG controlled the action and ensured that the breakaway group was caught again. With a consistently high pace on the 21.1 kilometre long final climb with an average gradient of 5.1 per cent, the Pogačar team ensured that the group around the favourites became smaller and smaller. The captain himself contented himself with a single attack, around 200 metres before the finish, to secure victory.
