"I didn't want to be surprised" - Tadej Pogacar rides Jebel Hafeet almost fully by himself to seal UAE Tour victory

Tadej Pogacar was the headliner of the UAE Tour and he definitely delivered on the expectations. The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider has won the second World Tour stage-race of the season with a triumph today at Jebel Hafeet, wrapping up a week with a lot of action both uphill and on the flat roads.

He was surprised with how hard the peloton went today in the flat section of the stage, leading to an average speed of over 47Km/h on a day with a summit finish. "Because a lot of guys have the last day today to do something, to train. A lot of the sprinters' teams don't have a GC rider. They have the Opening Weekend (Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, ed.) next week, it was a crosswind so it was good to make some chaos in the group".

But as always, he was present in the front, never skipping a beat, and in the process seeing several of his rivals getting dropped before the climbing even started. "For us GC riders we had to be really careful, always be attempt. It split the first time in crosswinds and somehow it worked. At first I didn't think we'd be cooperative but it went to the finish, for me it was a really good day".

UAE didn't have to do a lot of work. Their climbers were dropped in the crosswinds, but Soudal - Quick-Step (mainly, not exclusively) took care of the pace in the front group, helping their leaders towards a better final result. Pogacar only had to stay in the pack and save himself towards the final 10-kilometer climb.

"I wouldn't mind to go easy to the climb and just cool myself all the time, but like this it was pretty good with Florian [Vermeersch] and Rune [Herregodts] in the front they kept getting me water and cooling me down, so it didn't make the day too hard. For me it was ideal," he explains.

Then on the final climb itself, he made his move early on, with still over 7 kilometers to go. "That's when Rune pulled off his effort, two riders left for me in the bunch, they pulled how much they could then I decided to go and try to go solo. I didn't want to be surprised or counter-attacked or anything so it's just better to go at my own pace to the top," the World Champion adds. 

He started off his season just as successfully as expected, and now he will change his focus completely towards the spring classics. We'll see more of the Slovenian at Strade Bianche. "We will see, I don't race stage-races anymore until Dauphiné, time to switch a little bit the mind to the classics and try to make the most of it. I will try to enjoy, have good legs and we'll see".