Tadej Pogacar ready to get back in the game

Tadej Pogacar among the starters of the UAE Tour

There will also be Tadej Pogacar among the starters of the UAE Tour, the stage race on the roads of the United Arab Emirates that kicks off on Monday, February 17 and ends the following Sunday, on the 23rd. For the Slovenian, the dominator of the 2024 season, it will be the first race of the season, in which he will of course show off the world champion jersey won in Zurich at the end of September.

The Slovenian athlete will be at the UAE Tour for the fourth time in his career, where he has already won the general classification twice, in 2021 and 2022, taking four stage wins. Pogacar è one of the main favorites of the race, along with last year’s winner, Lennert van Eetvelt, and other top cyclists such as Pello Bilbao, Carlos Rodriguez, Alexey Lutsenko, Giulio Ciccone and Einer Rubio.

The 2025 UAE Tour will start on Monday, Feb. 17 with a 138-kilometer stage starting at the Madinat Zayed Solar Power Plant, and finishing at Liwa Palace in Abu Dhabi. In contrast, the last stage will be held on Sunday, Feb. 23, and will include a 176-kilometer route from Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain to the summit of Jebel Hafeet.

Created through the merger of Dubai Tour and Abu Dhabi Tour, the UAE Tour has been held since 2019, annually and without interruption. The first winner è was another Slovenian, Primoz Roglic. His victory was followed by those of Adam Yates in 2020, Pogacar in the next two years, Remco Evenepoel in 2023, and Van Eetvelt last year.