UAE Tour 2023 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE – Team Time Trial]

February 21, 2023

UAE Tour 2023 – Stage 2 TTT – Khalifa Port – Khalifa Port : 17,3 km

The UAE Tour is the youngest event on the UCI’s WorldTour calendar, having started out as recently as 2019. The seven-day event was born from the ashes of two other Middle Eastern races – the Abu Dhabi Tour and the Dubai Tour – and combines aspects of both to create one of the toughest stage races outside of Europe. Many of the sport’s biggest names use this race as an opportunity to kickstart their seasons and get their legs moving after a long winter break. The warm temperatures, combined with the challenging climbs and crosswind-ravaged transitional stages, make this a fantastic warm-up race for bigger races later in the season.

Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) moved into the overall lead at the UAE Tour as Remco Evenepoel laid down a marker by leading his Soudal-QuickStep squad to victory on the stage 2 team time trial at Khalifa Port.

EF Education-EasyPost had spent much of the afternoon in the hot seat, but they were pipped to the stage honours by a single second by Soudal-QuickStep, the final team down the start ramp.

When Soudal-QuickStep came through the intermediate check some seven seconds down, it looked as though EF Education-EasyPost were set for a surprise victory. Evenepoel, however, took command on the latter part of the 17.3km course, driving his team to the win at an average speed of 56.773kph.

Ineos Grenadiers claimed third place on the stage, three seconds down, with Pello Bilbao’s Bahrain Victorious squad a further second behind in fourth. It was another disappointing outing for Adam Yates’ UAE Team Emirates, who came home 16 seconds off the pace in 8th place, with Jay Vine losing further ground after being distanced by his teammates in the finale.

In the overall standings, Plapp and Evenepoel are now locked on the same time, but the Australian wears the red jersey of race leader thanks to his higher placing on Monday’s opening stage.

Bilbao, the other GC contender in the decisive break on Monday, enjoyed another fine outing here, and the Basque is fourth overall, just four seconds behind Plapp and Evenepoel.

With five stages remaining, the UAE Tour already looks destined to be a three-way tussle, and Evenepoel acknowledged that he had been more concerned with beating Plapp and Bilbao here than matching EF Education-EasyPost, whose well-drilled squad included Andrey Amador, Łukasz Wiśniowski and Simon Carr.

“We actually didn’t expect to go under the time of EF because we were mainly focused on the other GC guys, Plapp and Bilbao, and trying to do better than their teams,” Evenepoel said after the stage.

While Soudal-QuickStep were readying themselves at the start house, however, Plapp and Ineos were applying the finishing touches to their well-balanced display. The British squad had reached the 6.8km mark some 7 seconds behind EF, but they recouped considerable ground on the final part of the course.

Soudal-QuickStep would post a markedly similar negative split, reaching the intermediate check in the same time as Ineos but then steadily clawing back time on the run-in. Overnight leader Tim Merlier swung off with a couple of kilometres to go, but he had contributed generously to the effort that helped Soudal-QuickStep claim their second win in as many days.

“We saw just before we went off that Ineos also had a super good time, so then to be able to win this stage is very incredible, I think,” said Evenepoel.

“We executed our plan perfectly. We wanted to stay all together until we came out of the headwind and then some guys used all their energy to do one last pull. To win it by one second is pretty crazy. It’s my first ever TTT victory and to do it in this race with back-to-back victories is pretty special.”

Plapp: This is the best discipline in cycling
Plapp, for his part, confessed to surprise at being called to accept the red jersey on the podium, but the Australian’s careful harvesting of bonus seconds on Monday – not to mention his poise in the winning break – ensured he had done enough to claim the overall lead.

“I didn’t realise I was leading until they just announced the results, but it’s just such a close race, you can see that with me and Remco on even times,” said Plapp, who paid tribute to the efforts of a team that included 19-year-old Josh Tarling and the evergreen Cameron Wurf, a triathlete in his spare time.

“The 19-year-old is the strongest guy on our team here, I think. It’s pleasure to have Josh on our team. He’s such a big boy he’s going to be a future Filippo Ganna, I think. And Cam is so experienced, he’s been in pro peloton for so long, and he’s really good on the TT bike because he can spend up to 180km on it.

“Look, this is the best discipline in cycling, it’s my favourite, and I think people don’t realise how exciting it can be. There are never big time gaps.”

Yet while there was little to separate Plapp, Evenepoel and Bilbao – not to mention the unfortunate EF squad – at Khalifa Port, there was a further setback from Adam Yates in his bid to secure overall victory for UAE Team Emirates.

After losing almost a minute to Evenepoel et al on Monday’s opening stage, Yates conceded a further 16 seconds here, and he now lies 1:17 off the overall lead.

The complexion of the general classification should change, of course, on Wednesday, as the UAE Tour heads for its first summit finish at Jebel Jais. Plapp, Evenepoel and Bilbao will be locked in a contest for the red jersey, but men like Yates might sense a chance to claw their way back into the reckoning.

“Tomorrow’s a mountaintop top finish and anything can happen,” Plapp said. “Then hopefully there’ll be a few sprints days before the big showdown on Jebel Hafeet.”

Results :