Tadej Pogačar has dominated the Strava leaderboards on Jebel Hafeet during his tactical stage victory in the UAE Tour.
The Slovenian rider, winner of the 2020 Tour de France, extended his overall lead on stage three of the Middle East stage race, triumphing over Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) and fending off countless attacks.
Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) flew to the summit of the 10km-long climb, a regular fixture in the UAE Tour, in record time and took a collection of Strava KoM titles along the way.
The 10.6km-long Jebel Hafeet averages 6.9 per cent gradient, with ramps up to 10 per cent on the lower slopes.
Yates and Pogacar have taken the official record for the fastest climb up Jebel Hafeet, according to Climbing Records, with a time of 25-57 and an average speed of 25.2km/h.
The previous record was set in the 2020 edition the UAE Tour by Adam Yates, who set a 26-10 during his stage win in last year’s race.
But with Yates not on Strava, the leaderboards on the social media platform for athletes were Pogačar’s for the taking, as he claimed 13 leader’s crowns by the summit.
On the full length climb, a 10.6km first category segment named ‘Jebel Hafeet (foot of the climb to summit)', Pogačar smashed the previous fastest time, completing the segment in 25-10.
The previous fastest time on that particular segment was set by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the 2018 edition, when he completed the climb in 25-22, averaging 382 watts to win the stage.
Unfortunately Pogačar chose not to share his power data from stage three of this year’s UAE Tour, but other top riders from the day did.
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) was fast enough for a fourth-place finish on the stage and the sixth fastest time on Strava, as he pushed 370w for the 25-57 (estimated 6.3 watts per kilogram) it took him to reach the summit.
Not far behind, Neilson Powless (EF Education-Nippo), eighth on the stage and seventh on Strava, churned out 384w for 26-02 (approx 5.7w.kg), with an average heart-rate of 183 beats per minute during his climb.
Jumbo-Visma’s Sepp Kuss also looked to be one of the strongest riders on the final climb, before he finally cracked under the pressure of Yates’s attacks.
>>> George Bennett’s national champion’s jersey design rejected by New Zealand federation
Kuss finished 11th on the stage and now holds the 10th fastest Strava time on Jebel Hafeet, pushing 387w (approx 6.3w/kg) for 26-17 to complete the climb.
