World champion Alejandro Valverde earned his first win of the season in the third stage of the UAE Tour atop Jebel Hafeet.
Race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) appeared to be the strongest rider on the climb, and surged away from the group midway up the climb alongside David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates).
Valverde bided his time and struck at the precise moment to bridge to the three-man attack in the closing 2.5 kilometres toward the summit finish, a 10.1-kilometer ascent with an average gradient of 6.6 percent.
Roglic finished second to maintain ownership of the red leader’s jersey with a 14-second lead over Valverde with four stages remaining as the race moves to Dubai.
“I really wanted to get my first win of the year. It’s been difficult but I felt good and I had the advantage of knowing the climb very well so I could choose my pace,” Valverde said. “I knew I had to repeat the exact same tactics as last year. My priority was to win a stage. If I can add the GC, it’s great. If not, it doesn’t matter after what I achieved today with the help of my team.”
The UAE Tour continues on Wednesday with stage four, a 205km stage that finishes with a short and steep ascent to Hatta Dam.
You can rewatch Stage 3 from UAE Tour HERE.
UAE Tour 2019 – stage 3 results (UAE University – Jebel Hafeet):
| 1 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | 4:44:50 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 3 | David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 4 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04” |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +12” |
| 6 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +33” |
| 7 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 8 | James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +35” |
| 9 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 10 | Jan Hirt (Astana) | ,, |
UAE Tour 2019 – general classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | 9:38:05 |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +14” |
| 3 | David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) | +31” |
| 4 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +39” |
| 5 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +47” |
| 6 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +54” |
| 7 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +57” |
| 8 | Victor De La Parte (CCC) | +01’05” |
| 9 | James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +01’07” |
| 10 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’08” |
