Tadej Pogačar may have lost out to the time trial specialists on stage 2 of the UAE Tour but he built a small lead over his rivals for the general classification and moved up to third overall ahead of Wednesday's summit finish up Jebel Jais.
The Slovenian was one of the earliest riders to set off at 13:12 on Al Hudayriyat Island, keen to take advantage of the favourable early conditions, with wind and surprisingly some rain awaiting those who started later.
Pogačar set the early fastest time with 13:13 for the 12.2km course around Al Hudayriyat Island in Abu Dhabi. However he was soon surpassed by 2022 UAE Tour time trial stage winner Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), before Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) powered home with a blistering average speed of 56.6kph to take the win.
Pogačar was by no means disappointed.
"Pretty good time trial, my first real longer effort of the year and my first proper all-out. Yeah, I'm happy. It was pretty fast and I'm happy with the speed and with the legs," Pogačar told reporters including Cyclingnews as he warmed down after the race.
"Of course, I blew the legs, that's the whole point of the all-out effort. It was a good day but yeah, it's always going to be tough to compete against Tarling and Bissegger because they really fly on this kind of parcours."
With last year's winner Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto) finishing 28 seconds slower and Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) also losing 22 seconds, Pogačar is well-placed in the new general classification, 18 seconds down on Tarling and five behind Bissegger.
Teammate Jay Vine the closest of the overall contenders, three seconds down on Pogačar, showing UAE Team Emirates strength in depth.
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) also rode a strong time trial but finished 21 seconds back. The next closest after Vine sits the Movistar duo of Pablo Castrillo and Ivan Romeo, who will start stage 3 nine and ten seconds down on the Slovenian respectively.
It may not have been a victory, but Pogačar is looking good, albeit predictably, ahead of the two mountain finishes that are likely to be decisive in this year's race.
"Of course, you want to win, but in reality, you need to be also realistic," Pogačar said, speaking before it was confirmed that he had finished third.
"I'm pretty happy to be in this position right now, but let's see until the final of the TT, I hope to finish in this position as I am now. I'm still and pretty happy with the performance."
Pogačar will perhaps be looking to take over the lead of the race on Wednesday's 21.1km Jebel Jais climb that averages a 5.6% gradient.
It usually offers up a unique finish with a sprint between the climbers. Having won there in 2022, Pogačar is confident.
Pogačar, should he win on Jebel Jais and take the ten-second time bonus, will need to put Tarling on an eight-second gap. With the relatively shallow gradient all the way up the climb, the young British rider has a chance of defending the red jersey but Pogačar may want to lay down a marker and take an emphatic first win of the season.
"Tomorrow is a very nice stage for me on Jabel Jais. I have good memories, one time I won there and always it's a day for a sprint of the climbers," said the Slovenian.
"There's more or less always a sprint, but only climbers, so it's really funny to see. There can be surprises but it's normally like that. I'm really looking forward to it because it suits me very well."
Pogačar excelled in time trials in 2024, winning two out of the four he rode and finishing second in his other two, all of which were at Grand Tours. Yet even the 2024 'Triple Crown' winner has been working to improve as he looks to kick on from a historic season.
"There were some changes and the equipment always changes a little bit. So there's always more and more adaptation, more concentration on the TT," Pogačar said.
"Every team, every rider, they're working more and more on the time trial. So it's becoming super important to be fast in this discipline.
"Every year we try to do some tests. It's hard to do many adaptations through the year because there's really not too much time to adapt after and I feel like my body adapts pretty slowly to new positions on the TT bike. On the road bike, it doesn't matter what I do, but on the TT bike it always takes a while, so yes slowly and slowly every time, getting better."
All of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG roster used their home advantage as they took up base in the cool air of the Abu Dhabi Cycling Club, while the majority of their rivals warmed up and prepared their equipment in the heat of a car park just a few hundred yards from the start ramp.
They weren't, however, able to recon the 12.2km course in the days before the race started, with the World Triathlon Championship Series taking place on the route. Having not raced at the UAE Tour since 2022, Pogačar did not know the course so was heading in somewhat blind.
"It was hard to visualise the parcours because I didn't do this time trial last year when it was the same," he said.
"The last three days, we could not try it on this track because of the triathlon - it was closed and we didn't go to see it. I only did a recon today in the morning.
"So not too much visualizing, just visualizing your suffering, your feeling and that you need to do everything in one day and maximize performance in not too many hours of the day."
