Britain’s Adam Yates won the seventh and final stage of the UAE Tour on Sunday as Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel claimed overall victory by 59 seconds.
UAE-Team Emirates rider Yates, 30, made it to the mountain finish at Jebel Hafeet 10 seconds ahead of Evenepoel.
The success pushed Yates up to third overall, one second behind Australia’s Luke Plapp, of Ineos Grenadiers.
Evenepoel, 23, won his first Grand Tour – the Vuelta a Espana – last year and is reigning world road race champion.
Yates, who won the UAE Tour in 2020, said afterwards: “The tactic was to go full gas at the bottom. We had nothing to lose.
“The guys did an amazing job. I attacked quite early, but I knew I had to push really hard to drop the guys – and finally I managed to do it.”
Yates burst clear of the field with 6km of the steep final climb remaining. Only Evenepoel was able to stick with him, but the world champion eventually dropped back 3km from the finish.
It was a first stage win for Bury rider Yates in his first tour with UAE-Team Emirates since announcing his decision to move from British team Ineos last September.
He was signed to strengthen UAE’s squad on high mountain stages as support for two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar.
Stage seven result
1. Adam Yates (GN/UAE-Team Emirates) 3hrs 29mins 42secs
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +10secs
3. Geoffrey Bouchard (Fra/AG2R Citreon) +42secs
4. Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo Visma) +47secs
5. Pello Lopez (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +54secs
General classification
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) 23hrs 25mins 26secs
2. Lucas Plapp (Aus/Ineos Grenadiers) +59secs
3. Adam Yates (GN/UAE-Team Emirates) +1:00
4. Pello Lopez (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +1:03
5. Sepp Kuss (USA/Jumbo Visma) +2:06