UAE Tour: Remco Evenepoel takes leader’s jersey with storming time trial victory on stage 2

Following stage 1 and Isaac del Toro’s surprise win, stage 2 of the UAE Tour, a flat 12.2km time trial, would provide another major opportunity for a GC shakeup. Several top contenders for the win would start off early on Hudayriyat Island, while race leader Del Toro would start hours later as the last man down the ramp.

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Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United) was the first rider off, the former French time trial champion unsurprisingly setting what would turn out to be one of the quickest times of the day at 13:15. Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) also started strongly, crossing the checkpoint within four seconds of Cavagna before sliding to a time of 13:29 at the finish.

Despite the strong start from Cavagna, however, his time would only last four minutes before stage favourite Remco Evnepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) set off. The triple world time trial champion went nine seconds quicker at the checkpoint before setting a time of 13:03 at the finish line.

Evenepoel settled into what looked like being a long day in the hot seat as other rivals, including Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-CMA CGM) at 13:34, failed to come close to his time.

Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) came closest. The British rider was the 26th man to record a time, but was four seconds down on Evenepoel at the checkpoint, and six seconds down at the finish. He was nonetheless the second-quickest man to that point.

Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) also put in a good ride, his time of 13:28 good for fourth place after 33 runners, while Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Daan Hoole (Decathlon-CMA CGM) also went well with times of 13:33 and 13:29.
Alongside the time trial specialists, the GC challengers also went out early in order to catch the best of the conditions.

Of course, Evenepoel was the quickest of the hopeful, leaving a host of his rivals with work to do on the two upcoming mountain days at Jebel Mobrah and Jebel Hafeet.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) both put in good times with 13:37 at the line, while Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) also limited his losses with a time of 13:45.

Felix Gall (Decathlon-CMA CGM) crossed the line almost a minute down on Evenepoel at 14:00, while 2020 race winner Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was further back at 14:07.

All eyes, though, would be on his teammate Del Toro, though, during the long wait for the race leader to get going. The mid-stage saw dozens of riders passed without troubling the top of the leaderboards before the Mexican got his ride underway to end the day.

In the end, he wouldn’t come close to troubling Evenepoel’s time. Instead, Del Toro passed through the checkpoint already 32 seconds down with a time of 6:56 before racing to the finish line having lost a further 10 seconds to close out the stage with a time of 13:45.