Tarling blasts toward time trial victory in UAE Tour, Pogacar strengthens position in GC

The second stage of this WorldTour race was an individual time trial over a flat course of about twelve kilometers. It greatly resembled the time trial from the UAE Tour 2024, where the home team claimed the leading role. Brandon McNulty won then, with teammates Jay Vine and Mikkel Bjerg next to him on the podium. This time, too, it was a dream scenario for the fast riders. The course had no elevation changes, hardly any turns, and no technical obstacles. It was an important test for the GC riders from the start: who could get the first advantage and who would lose time?

Normally, riders in a time trial start based on the GC: the last in the standings begins first, while the GC leader is the last to go. However, different rules apply to the UAE Tour. Although the GC ranking is maintained, teams can decide which rider gets which starting slot. Only when two teammates start too close together after each other is the order slightly adjusted.

This resulted in several interesting choices. Like Tadej Pogacar, who decided to start very early, he certainly wasn't the only one. Other GC riders and time trial specialists also set off early to benefit from more favorable conditions. The wind was mainly in their faces and was about to pick up. Later on, there was also some light rain.

Pogacar was the first to set a serious target time. The Slovenian raced across the flat course and finished with an average speed of over 55 km/h, ten seconds under the time of Iván Romeo, who had been the fastest until then.

Yet, with all these top riders so close together, it didn't take long for someone to go faster. First, Stefan Bissegger beat the time by five seconds. But then came the British powerhouse Joshua Tarling. The 1.94-meter-tall Brit, the British time trial champion, overtook his predecessor, who had started a minute earlier, after just five minutes. It was a sign of an unprecedented explosion of power. The INEOS Grandiers rider stormed across the course and finished with an average of 56.6 km/h. This made the British cannonball thirteen seconds faster than the Swiss.

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Then the waiting began, a very long period of waiting for Tarling. Who could beat the British trialist's time, especially with the weather conditions worsening? It certainly wasn't Lennart van Eetveld. Last year's overall winner lost 28 seconds to his biggest challenger this year, Pogacar. For example, the Belgian's time was comparable to Bart Lemmen's.

But there was a surprising performance by Pablo Castrillo, Movistar's new rider. The Spaniard, who won two stages in the Vuelta in 2024, recorded the sixth fastest time and lost only nine seconds to Pogacar. Other GC riders with good time trial skills were Pello Bilbao and Finn Fisher-Black, who also finished in the top ten. Outside the top ten were climbers like Harold Tejada, Giulio Ciccone, and Carlos Rodriguez.

As expected, no one else came close, even in the top ten; not much changed. Jonathan Milan was the last to start and seemed to be the only one who could still be a threat, but he, too, could not compete against the wind. He lost 1 minute and 12 seconds and thus had to hand over his leader's jersey to Tarling.