In this arrival at the top, Pogacar was ahead, like last year, of the Briton Adam Yates, second in the stage, by 1 second, and in the final classification, by 22 seconds.
Bis repetita: the Slovenian of the UAE team won the UAE Tour like last year and embellished his success with two stage victories in the only two finishes at the top of the event, the first of the 2022 WorldTour calendar .
At Jebel Hafeet, a climb of 10.8 kilometers at 6.6%, Pogacar signed its third success at this Abu Dhabi site adjoining the Oman border.
"I know this climb by heart, it is very difficult", commented the double winner of the Tour de France.
"Adam (Yates) was very strong. At one point I really suffered, he put me in the red. When he attacked, I just tried to follow him and focus on the final sprint" .
"I had the (leader's) jersey, I didn't need to attack but you had to follow and respond to the attacks," added Pogacar, whose team controlled the climb with New Zealander George Bennett, then the Polish Rafal Majka, before the Portuguese João Almeida in the final.
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar wins the 7th stage of the Tour of the United Arab Emirates in Jebel Hafeet, February 26, 2022 Giuseppe CACACE AFP
Yates, the winner of the 2020 edition, went on the offensive approaching the last 3 kilometers without managing to clinch his rival.
Behind the duo, the Spaniard Pello Bilbao hung on to take, 5 seconds away, third place in the stage and the same rank in the final classification.
"It was the first race of the year for me, it's good to start the season with a victory", welcomed Pogacar who planned to participate next Saturday in the Strade Bianche, in Italy, before Tirreno-Adriatico then Milan-Sanremo.
On the French side, Geoffrey Bouchard took 9th place in the stage at Jefel Habeet and entered the final top 10 (8th) ahead of Romain Bardet.
© 2022 AFP