PREVIEW | UAE Tour 2025 stage 2 - Tadej Pogacar vs Joshua Tarling in 12-kilometer time-trial
Cycling
From February 17th to 23rd, the UAE Tour 2025 will take place. It is the second World Tour stage-race of the year and will feature plenty of stars in the field of the sprinters and also climbers - headlined by Tadej Pogacar. We preview stage 2.
Stage 2 is an Individual Time Trial that takes place entirely inside Al Hudayriyat Island. The route is very fast and is characterized only by a few right angle bends and two U-turns. The road is perfectly flat, wide and with sweeping curves, which will allow riders to maintain very high speeds (wind permitting).
It is an important day for the overall classification. Before the race reaches the mountains, this day will set some order amongst the climbers, and will dictate those who have to go on the attack and those who can already race in the defensive from this moment onwards.
The Weather
Some northwestern wind but it won't make much of a difference, the riders pretty much go on a loop.
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The Favourites
Joshua Tarling - The Briton is an expert on these distances and he will certainly be motivated to take the win. Against a Pogacar and UAE he will have a big challenge but certainly one he can come out as the winner. He's looking for a big win and this would be one way to fulfill that ambition - although we were left on the unknown regarding his form after INEOS abandoned the Etoile de Bessèges.
Tadej Pogacar - Always a man in form and always a man to consider. In all honesty, this isn't a time-trial that suits the Slovenian very well, it's pan-flat and so his W/Kg will matter little here. Still, even on the least fitting time-trial you have to consider him a victory contender, regardless of the competition.
UAE can still take the win however but not with Pogacar. Last year they finished with the entire Top3 and with a sizeable gap over the rest. Second and third on that day were Mikkel Bjerg and Jay Vine who come here with ambitions of also performing well on this day and from UAE you can expect anything.
The battle for the win will be above but there are a few riders who will still want to fight for a strong result on the day and are prioritizing it this week such as Lidl-Trek's Daan Hoole who looked mighty strong in Valencia; his teammate Jonathan Milan who with no doubt can also put down serious watts on a course like this... Specially with the leader's jersey on his shoulders.
Finn Fisher-Black, Bruno Armirail, Stefan Bissegger, Maikel Ziljaard, Josef Cerny, Rune Herregodts, Iván Romeo, Johan Price-Pejtersen and Max Walscheid are amongst the outsiders who will be looking for a possible Top5. Most of the GC contenders don't have an extremely high TT level and so the gaps will be small (except for Pogacar who should already build a good buffer).
Prediction UAE Tour 2025 stage 2:
*** Joshua Tarling, Tadej Pogacar
** Mikkel Bjerg, Jay Vine, Jonathan Milan
* Daan Hoole, Finn Fisher-Black, Carlos Rodríguez, Bruno Armirail, Stefan Bissegger, Rune Herregodts, Iván Romeo, Max Walscheid
Pick: Joshua Tarling
Original: Rúben Silva
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The UAE Tour is now just days away, we sat down with some of the riders taking part to get their thoughts 💭 #UAETour @AbuDhabiSC@ihc__official@Mubadala@NakheelOfficial@aldar pic.twitter.com/m0S4ki4ob8
— UAE Tour Official (@uae_tour) February 13, 2025
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- That made me smile Suipedali. Nice one!Cyclingsbestfan14-03-2025
- Even if Pogi has 5s on top of Poggio, he's getting caught on descent unfortunately. And it's extremely unlikely that he will have morevappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- If Pogi can drop him, then he will winabstractengineer14-03-2025
- In that sense, those two have less in common than the link you could make between demonstrators, right handers, Hinault and Merckx.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- "He apparently thought it was completely fine." Nothing broken and no concussion, that's as completely fine as it gets in cyclingvappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- Better safe than sorry. At least his injuries are a lot less severe than they were last year.
santiagobenites14-03-2025 - Well spotted :-)Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- One thing Jonas Vingegaard has in common with Hinault is that they are moaners, although I couldn't see Jonas giving a demonstrator a right hander!Suipedali14-03-2025
- They are surprisingly rare on the pro circuit, around our area, one in four races finishes of with a really steep 500m climb at the end.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- Give him an uphill sprint, then he may win against pure sprinters.
KerisVroom14-03-2025