Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is one day away from maintaining his one-week stage race win streak, which extends back to Itzulia Basque Country in 2021, with just the final stage summit finish at Jebel Hafeet lying between him and a third UAE Tour title.
After safely surviving the last rapid, hectic sprint finish on stage 6, Pogačar is looking to win up the 10.8km ascent on the UAE-Oman border for the fourth time in his career, adding to triumphs in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The world champion has only lost at Jebel Hafeet once, also in 2020 when his now-teammate Adam Yates won with by far and away the biggest-ever margin the climb has seen – 1:03 – in front of Pogačar in second. All three of the Slovenian's wins there have been by less than one second.
"I have really great memories from Jebel Hafeet, I have won a lot of times there," Pogačar told reporters including Cyclingnews after stage 6.
"One time I really lost badly against Adam Yates, who is now my teammate," he said with a smile. "But since then, I have always won there. I hope that tomorrow, I can deliver the same."
Pogačar, in his typical style, wasn't overly bullish about his chances, despite his status as the heavy favourite, even suggesting that the day could be for his Australian teammate Jay Vine, who will start stage 7 in fifth and only 36 seconds off the lead.
"If not me, then maybe Jay Vine can do it. For sure, we will go for it either way and let's hope to create some more nice memories tomorrow," said the Slovenian.
"We will see [whether it is a sprint again] because we have two cards to play tomorrow. Jay Vine is close on GC, his climbing shape is also super good and he's super strong so we'll see. Let's hope for good legs first."
2025 is the fourth year in succession that Jebel Hafeet will close out the racing at the men's UAE Tour, however, that does also mean that the threat of crosswinds opening up the racing and echelons forming will remain relevant right until the foot of the climb.
After things kicked off in the wind during last year's edition, Pogačar has clearly reviewed the footage for himself and won't be taking any chances. Expect the black and white jerseys of UAE to be front and centre throughout the 165km of racing that precedes the climb's beginning.
"I think we saw last year already there were some echelons going to the finish. Tomorrow is also a windy day and it's not going to be easy from start to finish," he said.
"We will have to be concentrated from the start and I think it's going to be a super hard day."
Despite the UAE Tour's atypical format of having the two key climbs to Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet spaced out by three flat sprint stages, Pogačar has no worries about how his race rhythm will be. After all, he did keep the legs shard with 110km in yesterday's breakaway.
"I mean it's not difficult [for the climbing days to be so separated] but it's not something that you're used to – having a TT then a hard stage and then three sprint stages," said Pogačar.
"But in one-week races, it doesn't matter so much, I think, because you have to be good every day. It's just something that you get used to from the UAE Tour as it's more or less like this every year and it doesn't bother me."
Pogačar will start the final day in the red jersey with a 21-second lead over Ineos Grenadiers' Josh Tarling. However, the time trial specialist will likely not be looking to challenge the Slovenian.
"It's going to be a big day anyway but I have to train for the Classics so I'm going to go bottom to the top [of the climb], Tarling told Cyclingnews before stage 6.
"I'm not expecting to be there, at all, but obviously I'm going to ride as hard as I can. It's a little bit steep for me but I'll ride with the belief and see how far I get."
The next closest competitors are GC hopefuls Iván Romeo (Movistar) on 27 seconds and his former teammate Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on 28 seconds.
With a buffer already in place, Pogačar could leave things to a sprint and play it safe, however, that is far from his style, especially after what he's shown this week.
