UAE Tour stage 3: Ben O'Connor wins atop Jebel Jais

Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) took his first WorldTour win of the season on stage 3 of the UAE Tour after a perfectly-timed attack on the summit of Jebel Jais.

The Australian surged clear of a vastly reduced field with 1.2km to go and held off a late challenge from Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny), who finished second and third respectively.

“It’s been a while since I won on a mountaintop. It was amazing, and the boys were super good today. It’s the second win of the year, so that’s pretty cool,” O’Connor said at the finish.

The win was a collective effort with O’Connor’s team one of the few squads willing and able to put UAE Team Emirates and race leader Brandon McNulty under sustained pressure. Valentin Paret-Peintre helped O’Connor create his winning gap, launching the Australian clear with a sustained acceleration.

“I just thought why not because in a sprint at the end I’m not always super confident so I just told him, ‘let’s go full’, and he was kind of dropping me off the wheel but it was sweet to get the gap. There’s no better motivation than to see everyone behind you and try to get to the finish line first."

Vine’s second-placed finish put the UAE Team Emirates rider into the overall lead with O’Connor now at 11 seconds and in second place. McNulty dropped to third overall, a further two seconds in arrears.

Pre-stage favourite Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) crashed with just over 40km to go and pulled out of the race near the foot of the final ascent.

“All day I felt super good, even with the crosswinds at the start of the stage, so I always thought that there was a chance. It was sad to see Adam go down, and lose his race in the crash but as soon as you see one of their main GC guys down it’s an opportunity that you need to take because it’s one less guy to worry about,” O’Connor added.

With a headwind for the majority of the climb, and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) efficiently pacing the peloton for most of the 19km slope, the stage win was always going to come down to the wire. Last year’s winner on Jebel Jais, Einer Rubio (Movistar), was the first major attack with 12.4km to go but he only managed to gain a 50m gap before UAE Team Emirates regained control. Bjerg was immense, reeling in several accelerations before sitting up with around 2.5km to go. Vine was briefly ushered to the front to protect McNulty, but with the pace easing ever so slightly Bjerg returned once more.

A strong turn from O’Connor’s teammate Nicolas Prodhomme strung the bunch out before Paret-Peintre’s vicious kick helped the Australian create his winning gap and take his first WorldTour win since claiming a stage of the Volta a Catalunya in 2023.

Cross-winds and crashes

The race broke to pieces with around 100km covered as crosswinds battered the field, but with all of the GC contenders in the front group, and therefore little purpose in pushing on, the peloton regrouped ahead of the first summit finish of this year’s UAE Tour.

Mark Stewart (Team Corratec-Vini Fantini) and Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) skipped clear of the bunch and quickly set about establishing a healthy buffer but with 48km to Rickaert relented, and allowed Stewart to forge clear with the gap at 1:44.

Back in the peloton, UAE Team Emirates set the pace ahead of the mountain-top showdown but with the lone breakaway rider still clear disaster struck when Yates clipped another rider’s wheel and hit the deck with a heavy fall. He was back on his feet and chasing relatively quickly as the bunch eased up. That allowed Stewart to buttress his advantage to 3:10 but once he secured the bonus seconds at the final intermediate sprint, he too sat up and waited for the peloton.

On the lower slopes, Bora-Hansgrohe set the initial pace but UAE Team Emirates still had plenty of firepower as they churned through domestiques. They made light work of Rubio’s attack and even when Yates peeled off and abandoned Bjerg was still on hand to string out the remnants of the front group.

Jan Hirt (Soudal Quick-Step) attacked with 5.7km to go but Bjerg’s relentless pace ensured that McNulty’s position was rarely threatened. That changed when Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team moved up. They first isolated the race leader from Bjerg, albeit briefly, then launched O’Connor to a well-deserved win that threw the race wide open.

For all the latest news and results from the UAE Tour, visit our dedicated race hub.