The mountain stage to Jebel Jais had yielded 3 clappers as winner in the 3 previous editions with Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar.
Edward Planckaert undoubtedly had no ambition to join that list when he attacked from the start with 3 other guys. But he was able to realize the ambition to collect a lot of points for the black jersey for the intermediate sprints, to the horror of the two Bardianis he was on the road with.
The past taught us that the ascent to Jebel Jais was always decided in the last hectometres. It was therefore logical that the favorites shunned the work in the final.
Einer Rubio was up for an adventure from afar. He seemed like a bird to the cat, because driving 11 kilometers on the wide, windy roads in front, that was kamikaze, wasn’t it?
But it was the toppers who crashed. UAE (for Adam Yates), Bahrain (for Pello Bilbao) and Ineos (with leader Luke Plapp) left it to Soudal-Quick Step. Only Remco Evenepoel’s helpers were not strong enough to keep the year-old Rubio from his first professional victory ever.
Evenepoel sprinted with astonishing ease to 2nd place, which still gives him the leader’s jersey. His lead over Plapp is now 7 seconds.
