photo credits @ UAE Tour
Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) outwitted his rivals to claim victory in stage 3 of the UAE Tour today, after the Australian rider launched a perfectly timed attack alongside teammate Valentin Paret-Peintre during the final 1.2km of the Jebel Jais climb.
“It’s been a while since I last won a mountain top. It was amazing. The boys were super good today. Second win of the year it’s pretty cool. I was not confident in my sprint at the end so we decided to go full before the 1km to go mark,” said O’Connor.
Meanwhile, third-place finisher Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) became the new Red Jersey of the race. His second-placed finish put the UAE Team Emirates rider into the overall lead with O’Connor in second place, while Brandon McNulty dropped to third overall.
Race Highlights
Mark Stewart (Team Corratec-Vini Fantini) and Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) rode clear of the peloton early on, later building up a sizeable advantage, before Rickaert dropped back with 48km to go, leaving Stewart to forge clear with the gap of 1:44.
Back in the peloton, UAE Team Emirates set the pace ahead of the mountain-top showdown but with the lone breakaway rider still clear disaster struck when Yates clipped another rider’s wheel and hit the deck. However, the Briton quickly remounted and rejoined the group. In the meantime, Stewart seized upon the chaos and increased his lead to 3:10. But, after securing the bonus seconds at the final intermediate sprint, he decided to sit up and wait for the peloton.
On the lower slopes, Bora-Hansgrohe set the initial pace but UAE Team Emirates still had plenty of firepower as they churned through domestiques. They made light work of Rubio’s attack and even when Yates peeled off and abandoned Bjerg was still on hand to string out the remnants of the front group.
Jan Hirt (Soudal Quick-Step) attacked with 5.7km to go but Bjerg’s relentless pace ensured that McNulty’s position was rarely threatened. That changed when Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team moved up. They first isolated the race leader from Bjerg, albeit briefly, then launched O’Connor to a well-deserved win that threw the race wide open.
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