23rd February – Stage 7: Al Ain Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium – Jebel Hafeet
Sunday saw the peloton take on the final day of action at UAE Tour, with a flat route before the traditional summit finish on Jebel Hafeet. All eyes were on the flags at the side of the road as there were multiple potential areas of crosswinds throughout the stage. Team Picnic PostNL were alert to the danger and ensured that GC finisher Oscar Onley was in perfect position for when things split. Making the front group alongside Julius van den Berg, and with the rest of the team marking out the chase, the gap for Onley’s leading group continued to grow as they hit the climb.
Things then opened up on the ascent of Jebel Hafeet as the pace ramped up, before Pogacar launched his stage winning attack with over seven kilometres to go. Onley tried to follow initially but just couldn’t make it onto the wheel, before working well with Ciccone. However, as the searing heat beat down Onley had to let go of the wheels momentarily but kept pushing on all the way to the top of the climb where he battled to a great fifth place on the stage; the same result he and the team secured on GC.
After the stage Onley said: “The guys were fully committed to me today and put me in a perfect position when the bunch split. Julius did a huge job looking after me for the rest of the stage before the final. I went too early on the climb but I had to try something to move up onto the GC podium. I think we’ve rode really well as a team this week and personally I’m looking forward to a little break before building up to the next goals.”
