After 138 kilometres between the Madinat Zayed Shams Solar Park and Liwa Palace, the Jonathan Milan (Lidl - Trek) won the first stage of the UAE Tour 2025. The 24-year-old beat Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin - Deceuninck) and Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) initially finished second and third. However, the Belgian Philipsen was subsequently relegated by the jury because he took a swerve in the sprint that hindered Fisher-Black. As a result, the Red Bull New Zealander slipped up to second place, Tobias Lund Andresen (Team Picnic PostNL) is the new third.
I am brutally exhausted. The heat, the last 700 metres, the whole race was harder than I thought - Jonathan Milan
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) was also in the fight for the stage win on the steep uphill finishing straight, but ultimately had no chance against the assembled sprint elite. The Slovenian experienced a moment of shock around eight kilometres before the finish when his team-mate Juan Sebastian Molano got stuck on his rear wheel and crashed.
UAE Tour 2025: Results of the 1st stage
Stage 1: Madinat Zayed Shams Solar Park - Liwa Palace
UAE Tour 2025: Stage 1, Madinat Zayed Shams Solar Park - Liwa Palace
| Rnk. | Riders | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lidl - Trek | 03:31:34 |
| 2 | Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe | +00:00:00 |
| 3 | Team Picnic PostNL | +00:00:00 |
| 4 | Lotto | +00:00:00 |
| 5 | Team Picnic PostNL | +00:00:00 |
| 6 | XDS Astana Team | +00:00:00 |
How the 1st stage of the UAE Tour 2025 went
As expected, there wasn't much for the breakaway riders on the first day. Nevertheless, three riders made a break for it: Carlos Samudio (Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini) from Panama and the two Italians Federico Biagini and Manuele Tarozzi (both VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè). The two Bardiani pros were particularly focussed on the intermediate sprint classification, in which Tarozzi secured the lead.
Things were relatively quiet in the peloton. There were a few attempts to form a wind relay on the ride through the desert, but all were ultimately unsuccessful. When it came to the finale, the pace was significantly increased by the sprinters and the breakaways were swallowed up. In the last ten kilometres, the home team UAE Team Emirates - XRG was back at the front. However, not everything went according to plan. Around eight kilometres before the finish, Juan Sebastian Molano, the team's sprinter, got hung up on Tadej Pogačar's rear wheel while sipping from his water bottle and crashed over a kerbstone.
The world champion, on the other hand, survived the dicey situation unscathed and was involved in the bunch sprint on the steeply ascending finishing straight. In the end, it was enough for tenth place on the day, directly behind Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain - Victorious), who was the best German. Jonathan Milan proved to have the greatest stamina, beating Jasper Philipsen and Finn Fisher-Black.
