PREVIEW | UAE Tour 2025 - Tadej Pogacar starts his season and is the ultimate favourite for GC win

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 the race ahead.

The first stage of the race is a full-on ride through the desert, much of the stage in a literal straight line, where strong winds could create absolute chaos. The finale however will be slightly uphill in Liwa, giving way to an exciting first sprint for the race lead.

Stage 2 will be an important day for the overall classification, as the riders one-by-one will race through the 12 kilometers of the Hudayriat Island time-trial (exactly the same as previous years). This will create differences between the GC riders before the riders reach the mountains.

Stage 3 of the race is going to be an important day, as the climbers will come to the front. The ascent to Jebel Jais never creates big differences, but we will see which climbers will have the legs to fight for the overall win and those who won't. The final climb is around 20 kilometers long, but on a very wide, exposed road where the gradients rarely go above 6%.

Stage 4 is another day that doesnn't have many special features, it's a pan-flat days in a more urban environment where the sprinters will have a shot at victory.

Stage 5 will be similar to the previous day, with no difficulties to point and another sprinter certain at the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, the most technical finale of the race.

Stage 6 will be taking place in Abu Dhabi, where the 2016 World Championships were hosted. The stage, designed once again for the sprinters, will be very calm certainly but the finale ultra-fast. The world's fastest riders will be taking glory once again.

The race ends with it's queen stage. A fully-flat day, with the toughest climb of the race matching the finish line. Jebel Hafeet is 10.9 kilometers long at 6.7%, not a brutal climb but it's first two thirds present very steep sections and this is a climb where big differences are usually made.

Tadej Pogacar - There's little doubt there that this is the man to beat. The only stage-race Pogacar will do this spring, but he does not have his main rivals present so if he can avoid crashes or splits he will likely have a comfortable week, with two likely wins besides the GC. Even though UAE does not have a very strong lineup, and will support Molano in the sprints, it doesn't really make much of a difference because if Pogacar is at his 2024 level I think very few will even be thinking of following his attacks.

A lot can happen throughout the week, with four bunch sprints there is the risk of crashes happening, whilst in the UAE the strong winds can make a difference every single day. Defending champion Lennert van Eetvelt is a terrific climber who really broke through last year, and it will be interesting to see if his explosive capabilities can land him on the final podium once again. I rate Giulio Ciccone and Carlos Rodríguez perhaps as the other big contenders for the final podium, INEOS will want a good result here and have their big leader present whilst Ciccone should be well protected by a powerful Lidl-Trek and is the right kind of climber for such stages.

In the past Pello Bilbao has performed quite well here and he should also be in this fight, being a rider who can also chase bonifications often - Rainer Kepplinger provides another card for Bahrain-Victorious. Movistar bring a really good lineup with Tour Down Under runner-up Javier Romo who actually promises quite a lot; Pablo Castrillo who looked solid in Valencia and Einer Rubio who won at Jebel Jais last year.

The other teams with more than one card are Visma with Bart Lemmen and Thomas Gloag; Israel with Alexey Lutsenko, Jan Hirt and Matthew Riccitello; Decathlon with Felix Gall and who knows, Paul Seixas can also do something interesting; and BORA who are debuting Giulio Pellizzari in a stage-race but also giving an opportunity to Finn Fisher-Black who is a wildcard for such long climbs.

Michael Storer comes in leading Tudor for the mountains, Picnic have Oscar Onley, Astana have Harold Tejada and Jayco have Chris Harper - many of these being riders who also rode the Tour Down Under and are putting a lot of focus into this early-season block.

The sprinter battles are really the highlight of this race, it's not by chance that it's often termed the 'sprinters' world championships'. There will be four pan-flat stages at World Tour level, something only the Grand Tours usually offer in the same amount throughout the season. With no major calendar clashes, most of the world's fastest are present, with their leadouts, and some teams have as many as six or even the whole seven riders thinking about these stages.

We will have sprint fights between Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan - often termed the three strongest and most consistent sprinters throughout the year - and they will each have their leadouts assembled well. Furthermore we've got Sam Welsford who has just won several stages at the Tour Down Under; Olav Kooij who comfortably won both sprints at the Tour of Oman... Arvid de Kleijn, Dylan Groenewegen, Gerben Thijssen, Matteo Malucelli, Juan Sebastián Molano, Fernando Gaviria and Picnic PostNL duo Fabio Jakobsen and Tobias Lund Andresen.

In the time-trial there is the small possibility that Pogacar won't come out with the win, here Joshua Tarling will be a strong contender and a perfect specialist for this kind of effort. Stefan Bissegger will also be an interesting rider to watch on this day - with Pogacar's teammate Mikkel Bjerg being the other big contender.

*** Tadej Pogacar
** Lennert van Eetvelt, Giulio Ciccone, Carlos Rodríguez
* Felix Gall, Michael Storer, Pello Bilbao, Alexey Lutsenko, Matthew Riccitello, Chris Harper, Giulio Pellizzari, Oscar Onley, Bart Lemmen, Einer Rubio, Pablo Castrillo, Javier Romo

Pick: Tadej Pogacar