PREVIEW | UAE Tour 2025 stage 2 - Tadej Pogacar vs Joshua Tarling in 12-kilometer time-trial

From February 17th to 23rd, the UAE Tour 2025 will take place. It is the second World Tour stage-race of the year and will feature plenty of stars in the field of the sprinters and also climbers - headlined by Tadej Pogacar. We preview stage 2.

Stage 2 is an Individual Time Trial that takes place entirely inside Al Hudayriyat Island. The route is very fast and is characterized only by a few right angle bends and two U-turns. The road is perfectly flat, wide and with sweeping curves, which will allow riders to maintain very high speeds (wind permitting).

It is an important day for the overall classification. Before the race reaches the mountains, this day will set some order amongst the climbers, and will dictate those who have to go on the attack and those who can already race in the defensive from this moment onwards.

Some northwestern wind but it won't make much of a difference, the riders pretty much go on a loop.

Joshua Tarling - The Briton is an expert on these distances and he will certainly be motivated to take the win. Against a Pogacar and UAE he will have a big challenge but certainly one he can come out as the winner. He's looking for a big win and this would be one way to fulfill that ambition - although we were left on the unknown regarding his form after INEOS abandoned the Etoile de Bessèges.

Tadej Pogacar - Always a man in form and always a man to consider. In all honesty, this isn't a time-trial that suits the Slovenian very well, it's pan-flat and so his W/Kg will matter little here. Still, even on the least fitting time-trial you have to consider him a victory contender, regardless of the competition.

UAE can still take the win however but not with Pogacar. Last year they finished with the entire Top3 and with a sizeable gap over the rest. Second and third on that day were Mikkel Bjerg and Jay Vine who come here with ambitions of also performing well on this day and from UAE you can expect anything.

The battle for the win will be above but there are a few riders who will still want to fight for a strong result on the day and are prioritizing it this week such as Lidl-Trek's Daan Hoole who looked mighty strong in Valencia; his teammate Jonathan Milan who with no doubt can also put down serious watts on a course like this... Specially with the leader's jersey on his shoulders.

Finn Fisher-Black, Bruno Armirail, Stefan Bissegger, Maikel Ziljaard, Josef Cerny, Rune Herregodts, Iván Romeo, Johan Price-Pejtersen and Max Walscheid are amongst the outsiders who will be looking for a possible Top5. Most of the GC contenders don't have an extremely high TT level and so the gaps will be small (except for Pogacar who should already build a good buffer).

*** Joshua Tarling, Tadej Pogacar
** Mikkel Bjerg, Jay Vine, Jonathan Milan
* Daan Hoole, Finn Fisher-Black, Carlos Rodríguez, Bruno Armirail, Stefan Bissegger, Rune Herregodts, Iván Romeo, Max Walscheid

Pick: Joshua Tarling