Roglic and Valverde go head to head on Jebel Jais for UAE Tour title - Preview
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) faces one more major hurdle ahead of him in his quest to take the overall victory at the inaugural UAE Tour: the summit finish of Jebel Jais on stage 6 on Friday.
Roglic has led the general classification since Jumbo-Visma won the opening team time trial and says that it is down to his rivals to attack him if they want to take the red leader’s jersey.
"I think we can be confident and we will try to defend the jersey tomorrow [Friday]," said Roglic. "If you see the list of the guys that are here, there are a lot of really, really strong guys. We will try to focus the best on our job, do it well and protect the jersey on the last climb. It's not really on us; we don't really need to attack to make something on the climb. For sure, others will, and I will try to follow."
It seems fitting that the inaugural edition of the UAE Tour will be decided by the new climb of Jebel Jais. While Jebel Hafeet and Hatta Dam featured in both the Abu Dhabi and Dubai Tours, Jais has not previously been used in a race. The Jais is situated in the Hajjar Mountains to the north of the UAE and is the Emirates’ highest mountain at just under 2,000 metres.
The route will not go all the way up to the top of the mountain but will instead stop at 1,458 metres. It will still be no mean feat, particularly when we are only a few weeks into the new season, and it will certainly test the peloton.
Jebel Jais will come after some 160 kilometres of racing along flat roads, starting in Ajman – the smallest of the Emirates. Similar to Jebel Hafeet on stage 3, the flat run into the climb will ensure that there are plenty of fresh legs able to push a hard pace.
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