UAE Tour: Evenepoel pulls on the red jersey

UAE Tour: Evenepoel pulls on the red jersey

Remco Evenepoel received the 52nd leader’s jersey of his career after sprinting out of the peloton in the closing meters of the UAE Tour stage 3 and taking runner-up atop Jebel Jais, the 21.1km climb that welcomed the peloton for the fourth time in the last five years.

It was a superb collective effort of the Soudal Quick-Step boys that helped the World Champion take over the race lead, Tim Merlier and Bert Van Lerberghe pulling on the flat behind the breakaway before making way to the likes of Josef Cerny and Louis Vervaeke to control things on the early slopes of the day’s main ascent.

Pieter Serry, despite a mechanical that forced him to chase hard in order to rejoin the bunch, and Mauro Schmid laid down a huge amount of work, turning themselves inside out on the steepest part of Jebel Jais, where the gradient went over 7%, Once the Swiss peeled off the front just before the flamme rouge, Evenepoel carefully calibrated his effort and accelerated with just 200 meters to go for his first podium of the season and a well-deserved red jersey.

By doing this, Remco added the UAE Tour to the impressive list of different stage races he has led since turning pro, which comprises a total of eleven events, including La Vuelta, Itzulia Basque Country, the Tour of Belgium and the Tour de Pologne.

“We came first, first, and now second on the first three stages, and now we have the leader’s jersey, so things are going well for us. This red jersey is a nice reward for the team, who worked incredibly hard today. They took care of me and showed how strong they are both on the flat and on the climb, and I want to thank them for that. The fact that I was the fastest one of the peloton is a good sign and gives me confidence for Sunday’s summit finish”, said Remco at the press conference.

 

Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images

Race details

1 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
4:51:24
2 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal - Quick Step
0:14
3 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
0:15
4 Alexey Lutsenko
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:15
5 Luke Plapp
INEOS Grenadiers
0:15
6 Harm Vanhoucke
Team DSM
0:15
7 Thomas Gloag
Jumbo-Visma
0:15
8 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
0:15
9 Sepp Kuss
Jumbo-Visma
0:15
10 Ben Zwiehoff
BORA - hansgrohe
0:15
39 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
1:15
53 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal - Quick Step
3:39
67 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
9:48
82 Josef Černý
Soudal - Quick Step
17:11
96 Tim Merlier
Soudal - Quick Step
18:21
121 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal - Quick Step
24:06
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal - Quick Step
8:27:22
2 Luke Plapp
INEOS Grenadiers
0:07
3 Pello Bilbao López de Armentia
Bahrain - Victorious
0:11
4 Stefan de Bod
EF Education-EasyPost
1:01
5 Wout Poels
Bahrain - Victorious
1:04
6 Harm Vanhoucke
Team DSM
1:10
7 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
1:10
8 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
1:11
9 Georg Steinhauser
EF Education-EasyPost
1:11
10 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
1:12
31 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
2:00
69 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
13:13
73 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal - Quick Step
13:58
78 Josef Černý
Soudal - Quick Step
17:56
86 Tim Merlier
Soudal - Quick Step
18:43
118 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal - Quick Step
24:27
1 Luke Plapp
INEOS Grenadiers
24 pt
2 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal - Quick Step
24 pt
3 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
20 pt
4 Tim Merlier
Soudal - Quick Step
20 pt
5 Edward Planckaert
Alpecin-Deceuninck
16 pt
6 Nikias Arndt
Bahrain - Victorious
16 pt
7 Caleb Ewan
Lotto Dstny
16 pt
8 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
12 pt
9 Mark Cavendish
Astana Qazaqstan Team
12 pt
10 Alexey Lutsenko
Astana Qazaqstan Team
9 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal - Quick Step
8:27:22
2 Luke Plapp
INEOS Grenadiers
0:07
3 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
1:10
4 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
1:11
5 Georg Steinhauser
EF Education-EasyPost
1:11
6 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
1:16
7 Antonio Tiberi
Trek - Segafredo
1:19
8 Thomas Gloag
Jumbo-Visma
1:21
9 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
1:32
10 Valentin Paret-Peintre
AG2R Citroën Team
1:43
12 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
2:00
1 EF Education-EasyPost 24:48:33
2 Astana Qazaqstan Team 0:18
3 UAE Team Emirates 0:37
4 AG2R Citroën Team 0:42
5 Trek - Segafredo 1:28
6 Soudal - Quick Step 1:49
7 Intermarché - Circus - Wanty 2:30
8 Jumbo-Visma 2:41
9 Israel - Premier Tech 2:49
10 Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè 6:06

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