Even the greatest riders make mistakes, and in his first race of the 2025 season, world champion Tadej Pogačar openly admitted he got one wrong as he opened up the sprint too early on the opening stage of the UAE Tour and fell to tenth place.
It's important to note that it was due to be a bunch sprint on the uphill kick in Liwa, however, when you look at the top 10 after the stage and see that potential GC rivals Finn Fisher-Black and Lennert Van Eetvelt beat him, it becomes clear the Slovenian could have played it better.
A bit of ring rust can be excused considering he hadn't raced for 128 days prior to stage 1 but his mistakes, in a sport where everyone loses more than they win, are often few and far between.
"We were a bit unlucky with Sebas crashing," said Pogačar, referring to his teammate and sprinter Juan Sebastián Molano, who hit the deck in a bizarre incident 8km from the finish.
"It didn't go as planned in the end in the final. But otherwise, we had good legs, we tried and it was a nice race.
"It looked like I was still stuck in my lead-out idea because I went so early in the wind! 250 metres to finish, I exploded and everybody passed," he said as he warmed down on the trainer post-race.
The sprinters were expecting to see the rainbow bands in the fast finale. At the start, sprinter Sam Welsford told Cyclingnews, "It's not like a standard sprint. I think it could be quite open, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Tadej up there having a big crack, I reckon."
Welsford's prediction came true when Pogačar launched first with Jonathan Milan in his slipstream, however, he was quickly overhauled by the big Italian, who powered to the line to take victory, with the Slovenian forced to sit back in the saddle once his legs had gone
However, if the last time he made a mistake is anything to go off – which was at the GP Québec when he waited for a sprint instead of backing his ability to win out of a smaller group – his next race will see a dominant performance just as he showed at the GP Montréal.
He's got the stage 2 time trial tomorrow and a first climbing test up Jebel Jais the day after, so there's plenty of time to take his first victory of the season and begin his charge toward a third overall title in his team's home race.
"I am looking forward to tomorrow, it's going to be the first real long effort of the season," he said. "The feeling is OK, there was a lot of work done in the winter and I hope it pays off tomorrow in the time trial."
Even with the minor error in the finale, his competitors aren't taking anything for granted and are well aware that he will remain the favourite. Pogačar's best stages are still to come, and he has – of course – won at both Jebel Jais and the key stage 7 climb to Jebel Hafeet before.
"I said this morning in the meeting, 'If I know Tadej, he's 100% going to try today' and I think he did in the final, I was right there," said eventual second place finished Finn Fisher-Black to Cyclingnews.
"Obviously, this is his race really, his race to win so I think everyone's got their eyes on him. He's perfect for Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet so we'll be watching him and trying to follow."
