UAE Tour: 2021 Preview

UAE Tour: 2021 Preview

The UAE Tour features a supercharged startlist this year, with Tadej Pogacar, Adam Yates and Chris Froome headlining those in attendance.

Froome Pogacar preview Racing UAE Tour Words: Joe Timms Yates

The UAE Tour is where the WorldTour begins.

It is the first race on the WorldTour calendar in 2021 after the Santos Tour Down Under was cancelled due to the global pandemic. This means we will see a supercharged startlist, with the likes of Chris Froome and Tadej Pogačar in attendance.

Mathieu van der Poel animated the first stage with a win from the bunch sprint, despite coming to the race as lead-out man for Jasper Philipsen. He currently sits in the overall lead.

The 2021 route features an individual time-trial for the first time since 2018, which takes place on stage two around Hudayriat Island. 13 kilometres in length, it will be the first chance for the GC challengers to gain time.

Filippo Ganna will attempt to win his eighth time-trial in a row, a streak which runs back to the Italian National Championships last August. Certainties do not exist in cycling, but if they did, Ganna will win the individual TT on stage two.

Read our full early season racing guide

The climbs to Jebel Hafeet on stage three (10.6km @ 6.8%) and Jebel Jais on stage five (21.5km @ 5.4%) are the two queen stages in the UAE. Jebel Hafeet was ridden twice at last year’s race, where Adam Yates and Tadej Pogačar both won. It was Yates’ win on stage three which secured him the GC.

UAE Tour stage 3

Stage five of the UAE Tour, which finishes atop Jebel Jais (via La Flamme Rouge)

The other four stages are flat as a pancake and will be contested in a mass-sprint. The only notable emission from the route is the wall of Hatta Dam.

The leading favourite here has to be Tadej Pogačar. At the team’s home race, the Tour de France champ will look to improve on his second place overall last season, where he was disappointed to lose to Adam Yates at his team’s home race. He will be helped by Davide Fomolo and Diego Ulissi, who returns after being diagnosed with myocarditis.

Adam Yates won the UAE Tour last year and debuts for the INEOS Grenadiers this time around. He is a one-week race specialist and could well be the opponent Pogačar fears most. As ever, the INEOS team is strong, with Filippo Ganna, Daniel Martínez and Tour de la Provence winner Iván Sosa starting. The time-trial will put-pay to Sosa’s GC chances here, though.

We will see João Almeida back in action for the first time after his stupendous performance at the Giro d’Italia, where he claimed the maglia rosa on stage three and held it until stage eighteen. The Portuguese is now a name to be reckoned with and starts as a genuine threat to win the UAE Tour.

Other GC protagonists include Rigoberto Urán, Emanuel Buchmann, Wout Poels, Alexey Lutsenko, Sepp Kuss and who knows, perhaps Chris Froome. The Brit is making his debut for Israel Start-Up as he aims to get back to his best with the Israeli outfit.

The race is well suited to the sprinters with four clear opportunities to win – this can be seen with the sprinters present in the UAE. Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett, Pascal Ackermann and Giacomo Nizzolo are the headline names.

Fernando Gaviria had a down-year in 2020 and struggled at the Clásica de Almería earlier in 2021 – he will be desperate to get back to winning ways, and UAE-Team Emirates will be equally keen to wrack up the wins on home soil.

Another sprinter to look out for is Jasper Philipsen who starts alongside Mathieu van der Poel for Alpecin-Fenix. Philipsen will likely sprint for his new team – he won stage 15 at La Vuelta last season. It will be intriguing to see what role Van der Poel is to play for the rest of the race, having initially set out as lead-out man, while the GC is too difficult for him.

Alpecin-Fenix left the UAE Tour after the first stage due to a member of the team testing positive for COVID-19.

One final sprinter we will be keeping a keen eye on is Stefan Bissegger. The 22-year-old Swiss is talented in both time-trialling and sprinting. With no other sprinters in their line-up, EF Education-NIPPO will give him an opportunity after a good display at the Binckbank Tour last year.

Favourites: Tadej Pogačar, Adam Yates, João Almeida

Dark horses: Emanuel Buchmann, Sepp Kuss, Alejandro Valverde, Patrick Konrad, Jack Haig, Chris Froome

Cover image: Alex Broadway/ASO/SWpix.com

Froome Pogacar preview Racing UAE Tour Words: Joe Timms Yates

READ MORE

Giro d'Italia 2025 stage 13 preview: A steep and punchy finale

Giro d'Italia 2025 stage 13 preview: A steep and punchy finale

A testing finishing climb could draw out the GC contenders to claim vital seconds

Leggi di più
Richard Carapaz at the Giro d'Italia

‘Follow your instincts’ - Have the contenders been shown the blueprint to claim the Giro d’Italia?

Richard Carapaz launched an opportunistic move to claim stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia and climb up the GC

Leggi di più
Giro d'Italia 2025 stage 12 preview: A fast finish

Giro d'Italia 2025 stage 12 preview: A fast finish

An opportunity for the sprinters awaits on a flat run into Viadana

Leggi di più
Primoz Roglic

A tight GC and an intriguing parcours: the Giro d'Italia has been left perfectly poised

A rain-soaked time trial has done little to shed light on who will walk away with the maglia rosa in Rome

Leggi di più
Luke Plapp on stage eight of the 2025 Giro d'Italia

Giro d'Italia 2025 stage 11 preview: A testing day in the Apennines

A difficult climbing day will pose a tricky physical and tactical test for the general classification contenders

Leggi di più
Giro d’Italia state of play: Can UAE hold off the fight back from Red Bull?

Giro d’Italia state of play: Can UAE hold off the fight back from Red Bull?

Entering week two, the Giro d’Italia is perfectly poised for aggressive riders like Primož Roglič, Egan Bernal and Richard Carapaz to attack UAE’s youngsters, Juan...

Leggi di più

READ RIDE REPEAT

JOIN ROULEUR TODAY

Get closer to the sport than ever before.

Enjoy a digital subscription to Rouleur for just £4 per month and get access to our award-winning magazines.

SUBSCRIBE