Tadej fulfilled what almost everyone expected of him in the 3rd stage of the UAE Tour. He was the fastest on the final climb to Jebel Jais, celebrating his first victory of the 2025 season and also taking the leader’s red jersey.
»It feels amazing, finally back racing and finally a victory after three days. We are super happy, we did perfect, it was a very hard day for the guys to control the race, it was long and we didn’t get any help until the last climb. We executed our plan really well. Everyone in the team deserves this victory, I am super happy,« said Tadej after the exceptional performance of the entire UAE Team Emirates – XRG team.
His teammates controlled the peloton all day, kept the breakaways at a safe distance, and then set a fierce pace on the 21-kilometer climb to Jebel Jais, which allowed Tadej to deal with his competitors in the finish, where he was convincingly the strongest.
»It’s realy good to win in the rainbow jersey, part of me hoped that Tarling would hold on to the bunch and keep the jersey, but I’ll be more than happy to have the leader’s jersey instead of the rainbow one tomorrow. The race is not finished yet, there are still three flat stages, you never know what can happen here. You can quickly lose the race, tomorrow is the middle point od the rece, so there is still half way to go,« added Tadej after his 89th career victory.
In the overall standings, he has an 18-second lead over second-placed Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), and Tadej and his team are aware that they will need to be cautious in the next three flat and most likely windy stages. Then they will try to put the finishing touch on a successful race in Sunday’s final stage with a finish climb to Jebel Hafeet.