Tiberi conquers Jebel Mobrah as Evenepoel cracks at UAE Tour

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) soloed to victory atop Jebel Mobrah on stage 3 of the UAE Tour, fending off a late charge from Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to move into the red jersey.

Tiberi steadily closed down an earlier attack from Felix Gall (Decathlon) before striking off alone with 4km to go, and he managed his effort well on the wickedly steep climb to hold off Del Toro by 15 seconds. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarche) was third at 29 seconds, while the rest of the GC men spilled across the line in small groups.

The day was billed as a duel between Del Toro and overnight leader Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), but the contest never materialised. Evenepoel, seemingly suffering from cramp, was surprisingly distanced with 4km of the climb remaining.

Del Toro left his own effort late, having been poorly positioned as the steepest portion of the climb began. He ripped clear of the chasing group with 2.5km to go, but he was unable to claw back Tiberi on the final ramps of the climb. 

The long and steep final climb was the toughest yet tackled by the UAE Tour and it caused considerable attrition in the red jersey group. The first big effort came from Felix Gall (Decathlon), with Evenepoel among those to respond, but it was perhaps telling that the Belgian quickly knocked off his effort. At first, it looked as though Evenepoel was acting out of caution due to the steepness of the climb, but it soon was clear that he was in some difficulty.

At that point, Del Toro was himself languishing off the back of the leading group, though his smooth pedalling indicated that he was not in undue distress, and he gradually worked his way back up.

Gall was stalked by a group featuring Tiberi, Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) and Harald Tejada (XDS-Astana), until the Italian launched his winning move with 4km to go.

Further down the road, Evenepoel was now adrift of the GC group, where Del Toro had worked his way back into position. Adam Yates set the tempo on his behalf before the Mexican launched his effort.

The stage’s 183km distance meant there was a long, flat run-in from Umm al Quwain to the ascent of Jebel Mobrah, and the day’s early entertainment was provided by the Alpecin-Premier Tech duo Silvan Dillier and Jonas Rickaert, who clipped off the front in the opening kilometres, building a maximum lead of eight minutes.

Rickaert was part of a famous two-up effort at last year’s Tour de France, but there would be no suspense here, with the duo swept up by the peloton on the lower ramps of the climb to Jebel Mobrah.

The lone frisson in the peloton during the long preamble was a brief split created by Soudal-QuickStep with some 100km to go, but the bunch was quickly stitched back together. 

In the overall standings, Tiberi leads Del Toro by 21 seconds, with Tejada third at 1:00, while Evenepoel is 11th at 1:44. There is still a summit finish at Jebel Hafeet to come on Saturday, but it will take something remarkable for Evenepoel to re-enter a GC race that now looks like a contest between Tiberi and Del Toro.