UAE Tour: Tarling races to time trial victory - Pogačar in lurking position
Thomas Goldmann
· 18.02.2025
An individual time trial was on the programme for the second day of the UAE Tour 2025. Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) secured victory. The 21-year-old Briton raced at an average speed of 56.671 km/h over the 12.2-kilometre course on the island of Al Hudayriyat. Second place went to Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), who was 13 seconds slower. Behind him, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) finished in third place, 18 seconds behind the day's winner. This gives the Slovenian the best chance of taking the overall lead, which Tarling took over from Jonathan Milan (Lidl - Trek) after the time trial, on Wednesday on the Jebel Jais.
UAE Tour 2025: Results of the 2nd stage
Stage 2 (ITT): Al Hudayriyat Island - Al Hudayriyat Island
UAE Tour 2025: Stage 2 (ITT), Al Hudayriyat Island - Al Hudayriyat Island
| Rnk. | Riders | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | INEOS Grenadiers | 00:12:55 |
| 2 | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | +000:00:13 |
| 3 | UAE Team Emirates - XRG | +000:00:18 |
| 4 | UAE Team Emirates - XRG | +000:00:21 |
| 5 | Team Jayco AlUla | +000:00:24 |
| 6 | Movistar Team | +000:00:27 |
Max Walscheid best German
Max Walscheid (Team Jayco AlUla) also put in a formidable performance, finishing fifth as the best German and only six seconds slower than Pogačar. Pello Bilbao (8th place/+0:39), Giulio Ciccone (13th place/+0:42) and Carlos Rodríguez (14th place/+0:43) were the best of the other favourites in the classification.
Last year's winner Lennert van Eetvelt from the Lotto team finished 28 seconds behind Pogačar and 46 seconds behind Tarling. Things are currently going very well for his INEOS Grenadiers team. Tarling took his fourth win of the season. Michal Kwiatkowski had previously won the Clásica Jaén and Egan Bernal won the individual time trial and road race titles at the Colombian championships. However, the 2019 Tour de France winner crashed at the Clásica Jaén and suffered a broken collarbone, ruling him out for the time being.
