Jonathan Milan claims victory on the challenging finish at Liwa Palace, securing his first-ever win at the UAE Tour and wearing the Red Jersey as the overall leader for the first time. The Lidl-Trek rider, who had already won a stage at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana earlier this season, timed his sprint perfectly to edge out Jasper Philipsen – later relegated to 52nd place for irregular sprinting – and Finn Fisher-Black in a thrilling finale.

With this victory, Milan also takes the lead in both the Green Jersey and White Jersey classifications, while the Black Jersey for intermediate sprints goes to Manuele Tarozzi, the last breakaway rider to be caught by the peloton. Tomorrow, the individual time trial on Al Hudayriyat Island will serve as the first real test for the GC contenders.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
2. Finn Fisher-Black (RedBull – Bora – Hansgrohe) at 4″
3. Tobias Lund Andresen (Team Picnic PostNL) at 6″

STAGE RESULTS

1. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), 138km in 3h31’34”, average speed 39.137 km/h
2. Finn Fisher-Black (RedBull – Bora – Hansgrohe) s.t.
3. Tobias Lund Andresen (Team Picnic PostNL) s.t.

THE OFFICIAL JERSEYS

The leader jerseys of the UAE Tour are provided by ALÉ, proud jersey partner of the leader jersey by ENIT and ITALIA.IT.

• Red Jersey, leader of the General Classification, sponsored by International Holding Company: IHC – Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
• Green Jersey, leader of the Points Classification, sponsored by Mubadala – Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) – worn by Tobias Lund Andresen (Team Picnic PostNL)
• White Jersey, Best Young Rider, sponsored by Nakheel – Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) – worn by Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto)
• Black Jersey, leader of the Intermediate Sprint Classification, sponsored by ALDAR – Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group BardianiCSF-Faizanè)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Speaking in the press conference, the stage winner and Red Jersey Jonathan Milan said: “In any case I had a lot of motivation for this uphll finish although it was different from what I’m used to. It was important to find the best spot, not too far back but also not too early at the front, to get a good run-in to the last 700 meters. I still had the power for the final metres and the guys guided me to best spot possible. At one moment, I saw Tadej Pogacar attacking. I was following another guy from Bardiani then I did my sprint. We’re also preparing for Milano-Sanremo that has a different kind of finale and the other classics later on but let’s enjoy this UAE Tour first. Tomorrow, the time trial is not super long, there are riders in contention who are more specialised than me but I have a jersey to defend, I’ll do my best to retain it”.

STATISTICS

• Third win by an Italian rider at the UAE Tour after stage 5 in 2019 (Elia Viviani) and stage 2 in 2021(Filippo Ganna).
• Jonathan Milan is the first leader for Italy at the UAE Tour. Italy is the 9th country with a leader’s jersey in the history of the race. Slovenia leads with 17 stages in the lead.
• At 23 years and 132 days, this was the 3rd youngest stage podium in UAE Tour’s history. The record is 22 years 308 days, stage 6, 2022 (Mathias Vacek, Paul Lapeira, Dmitry Strakhov).
• First podium at the UAE Tour for Tobias Lund Andresen. He is the 4th rider from Denmark with a top-3 finish here after Michael Morkov, Mikkel Bjerg and Jonas Vingegaard. The latter is the only winner: Jebel Jais 2021.