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Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Crew) took his first WorldTour win of the season on stage 3 of the UAE Tour after a perfectly-timed assault on the summit of Jebel Jais.
The Australian surged away from a vastly decreased subject with 1.2km to go and held off a late problem from Jay Vine (UAE Crew Emirates) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny), who completed second and third respectively.
“It’s been some time since I received on a mountaintop. It was superb, and the boys had been tremendous good right this moment. It’s the second win of the 12 months, in order that’s fairly cool,” O’Connor mentioned on the end.
The win was a collective effort with O’Connor’s staff one of many few squads keen and capable of put UAE Team Emirates and race chief Brandon McNulty beneath sustained stress. Valentin Paret-Peintre helped O’Connor create his successful hole, launching the Australian clear with a sustained acceleration.
“I simply thought why not as a result of in a dash on the finish I’m not all the time tremendous assured so I simply informed him, ‘let’s go full’, and he was sort of dropping me off the wheel nevertheless it was candy to get the hole. There’s no higher motivation than to see everybody behind you and attempt to get to the end line first.”
Vine’s second-placed end put the UAE Crew Emirates rider into the general lead with O’Connor now at 11 seconds and in second place. McNulty dropped to 3rd general, an additional two seconds in arrears.
Pre-stage favorite Adam Yates (UAE Crew Emirates) crashed with simply over 40km to go and pulled out of the race close to the foot of the ultimate ascent.
“All day I felt tremendous good, even with the crosswinds firstly of the stage, so I all the time thought that there was an opportunity. It was unhappy to see Adam go down, and lose his race within the crash however as quickly as you see one among their principal GC guys down it’s a possibility that you want to take as a result of it’s one much less man to fret about,” O’Connor added.
With a headwind for almost all of the climb, and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Crew Emirates) effectively pacing the peloton for many of the 19km slope, the stage win was all the time going to return all the way down to the wire. Final 12 months’s winner on Jebel Jais, Einer Rubio (Movistar), was the primary main assault with 12.4km to go however he solely managed to realize a 50m hole earlier than UAE Crew Emirates regained management. Bjerg was immense, reeling in a number of accelerations earlier than sitting up with round 2.5km to go. Vine was briefly ushered to the entrance to guard McNulty, however with the tempo easing ever so barely Bjerg returned as soon as extra.
A powerful flip from O’Connor’s teammate Nicolas Prodhomme strung the bunch out earlier than Paret-Peintre’s vicious kick helped the Australian create his successful hole and take his first WorldTour win since claiming a stage of the Volta a Catalunya in 2023.
Cross-winds and crashes
The race broke to items with round 100km coated as crosswinds battered the sector, however with all the GC contenders within the entrance group, and subsequently little function in pushing on, the peloton regrouped forward of the primary summit end of this 12 months’s UAE Tour.
Mark Stewart (Crew Corratec-Vini Fantini) and Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) skipped away from the bunch and shortly set about establishing a wholesome buffer however with 48km to Rickaert relented, and allowed Stewart to forge clear with the hole at 1:44.
Again within the peloton, UAE Crew Emirates set the tempo forward of the mountain-top showdown however with the lone breakaway rider nonetheless clear catastrophe struck when Yates clipped one other rider’s wheel and hit the deck with a heavy fall. He was again on his ft and chasing comparatively shortly because the bunch eased up. That allowed Stewart to buttress his benefit to three:10 however as soon as he secured the bonus seconds on the remaining intermediate dash, he too sat up and waited for the peloton.
On the decrease slopes, Bora-Hansgrohe set the preliminary tempo however UAE Crew Emirates nonetheless had loads of firepower as they churned by domestiques. They made mild work of Rubio’s assault and even when Yates peeled off and deserted Bjerg was nonetheless available to string out the remnants of the entrance group.
Jan Hirt (Soudal Fast-Step) attacked with 5.7km to go however Bjerg’s relentless tempo ensured that McNulty’s place was hardly ever threatened. That modified when Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Crew moved up. They first remoted the race chief from Bjerg, albeit briefly, then launched O’Connor to a well-deserved win that threw the race huge open.
For all the newest information and outcomes from the UAE Tour, go to our devoted race hub.
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