Pogacar sprinted ahead of Briton Adam Yates (Ineos) and Russian Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora) at the end of a long climb of 20 kilometers with a constant drop of 5%, steepening to 7% just in the last two kilometers.

The Slovenian, winner of the UAE Tour last year and double title holder on the Tour de France, took the opportunity to take the lead in the general classification with two seconds ahead of the Italian Filippo Ganna (Ineos) and 13 on Aleksandr Vlasov.

In grandiose landscapes but on a smooth and wide ribbon of asphalt, the peloton arrived grouped at the foot of the first escarpments before the Italian Luca Rastelli (Bardiani) and the Dane Jakob Egholm (Trek) attempted a timid breakaway.

Quickly caught up, it was then a group of ten runners who broke away 2 kilometers from the finish with in particular Pogacar, Yates and Vlasov.

Starting just before the line, the Slovenian won with less than two meters ahead of his first two pursuers then a group of 13 riders 3 seconds away including the French Romain Bardet and Geoffrey Bouchard.

"It's fantastic to win. It was a difficult finish but the team work was very solid today. It was a fast climb with a lot of climbers attacking from all sides. The team m 'wore until the last sprint and I did my best. I'm very happy to take both the stage and the jersey today and to start the year with a victory," said Pogacar as soon as after arrival.

Filippo Ganna, who could hope for first place after the failure of the Swiss Stefan Bissegger, could not do better than 11th in the stage and failed for two seconds in his quest for the red jersey.

However, he is still 11 seconds ahead of Vlasov and 13 over Yates.

The highest ranked Frenchmen overall are Geoffrey Bouchard, 10th and Romain Bardet, both 41 seconds behind the leader.

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, 4th overall at the start of the stage, dropped out very early on the ascent of Jebel Jais and finished the stage more than five minutes from Pogacar, falling to an anonymous 43rd place in the lap classification.

On Thursday, the 5th stage will cover 182 kilometers between the Ras al Khaimah corniche and Al Marjan Island, with a scheduled finish for the sprinters.

The UAE tour ends on Saturday.

© 2022 AFP