UAE Tour 2025 Stage 7

February 23, 2025 The final stage of the UAE Tour is 176KM and finishes atop Jebel Hafeet, a staple for the race. The climb is 10.7KM long with an average of 6.5% but the middle of the climb is all 8% and is likely where any action will take place. At the sign-on, there was a 25KM/HR wind blowing and with the primary direction of travel, there will be opportunities for echelons. The start was much more active than in previous days. A number of groups got away and joined together with 148KM to go to make 12 riders including Logan Currie of Lotto, Robbe Ghys of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, Gerben Kuypers of Intermarché-Wanty, Pier-André Côté and Alexey Lutsenko of Israel-Premier Tech, Patrick Konrad of Lidl-Trek, Đorđe Đurić, Dušan Rajović, and Carlos Samudio of Solution Tech-Vini Fantini, Ayco Bastiaens of Soudal Quickstep, and Enrico Zanoncello of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. The first echelons formed with 127KM to go as Soudal Quickstep and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe squeezed the bunch into the gutter. A group of around 30 got clear, including the entire Soudal Quickstep team, with a huge gap the rest of the field. GC riders like Lennert Van Eetvelt, Jay Vine, Georg Steinhauser, Felix Gall, and Matthew Riccitello were missing from the front split and would be forced to a lot of the chasing. The front echelon caught the initial break with 100KM to go to make a group of around 40 with a lead to the rest of the bunch of 1 minute. The will of the chase seemed to snap with 85KM to go. They were chasing and holding at 1 minute but in just a few kilometers, the gap extended another 40 seconds. By the time the front of the race went through the Intermediate Sprint at 13.5KM from the finish, the gap was over 3 minutes. Many of the riders pushing the pace all day in the front dropped as soon as they hit the climb with 10.7KM to go. Florian Vermeersch started the climb for UAE-XRG with Rune Herregodts taking up the pace next. When Herregodts pulled off with just under 8KM to go, Tadej Pogačar attacked. Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL and Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek were the closest to hanging on but neither actually made it back to Pogačar's wheel. Pogačar rode his race the rest of the way up the climb and put his hands in the air for a second time this week, sealing his GC win. Behind Ciconne and Onley, Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Iván Romeo and Pablo Castrillo of Movistar, and Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious joined together. With 4KM to go, Onley cracked and was dropped by Ciccone. 2KM later, Bilbao attacked from the third group and went right passed Onley. Romeo tried to match Bilbao's effort but he couldn't stay with the pace. Bilbao caught Ciconne with 1.3KM to go and the pair worked together until about 250M to go when Ciccone made his move. He led through the final corner and took second place on the stage, 33 seconds back from Pogačar. Bilbao came in 2 seconds later for third place. In the GC, Pogačar won the UAE Tour for a third time. He finished 1 minute 14 seconds ahead of Ciccone in second with Bilbao in third, 1 minute 19 seconds down. Romeo did an incredible ride during the week to take fourth overall.