The UAE Team Emirates rider repeated his achievement of last year by beating Adam Yates in the final sprint at Jebel Hafeet. The Slovenian won his second stage and the overall classification at the UAE Tour.
Unlike all the previous days, today the World Tour teams have decided to place riders in the breakaway as a last-minute dash, or from the possibility of another surprise breakaway win. The group was composed of Dayl Impey (Israel - Premier Tech), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin - Fenix), Joris Nieuwenhuis (Team DSM), Michael Morkov (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team), Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange - Jayco), Clément Davy (Groupama - FDJ) and Michael Schwarzmann (Lotto Soudal). A quality group but one that never got much freedom due to the flat plains of the UAE.
The group resisted until the base of the final climb, with Vermeersch the last survivor up the mountain. BORA - hansgrohe had Patrick Konrad set the pace in the first kilometers of the climb, but without putting the peloton in the hurt zone too badly. UAE took over with just over 4 kilometers to go, as Pogacar briefly made a move to see the reaction behind.
The peloton was chopped with Rafal Majka's pace, and when Adam Yates attacked with 3.4 kilometers to go only Pogacar could answer. A start and stop began as Yates attacked multiple times but never managed to distance the race leader, for a second year in a row.
Although briefly being joined by Pello Bilbao - who finished third - and João Almeida, the duo went into the final sprint together again and Pogacar easily overpowered the Briton to conquer the UAE Tour in style.
Jasper Philipsen confirmed his win in the points classification, whilst Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates took the U25 and team classifications.
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