Einer Rubio of Movistar celebrated his 25th birthday by winning stage three of the UAE Tour on top of Jebel Jais on Wednesday.
Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-QuickStep and the UAE Team Emirates rider Adam Yates took second and third in the first of the two mountain stages of the seven-day event, which is the only World Tour race in the Middle East.
The second place-finish made Evenepoel the overall leader after previously sharing the lead with Luke Plapp of Ineos Grenadiers.
Einer attacked on the final climb and managed to defend his lead all the way to the finish, crossing the line 14 seconds ahead of the leading riders challenging for the general classification.
“In the last kilometres, I had doubt that they might come back and catch me, but I still had the strength to push on,” Rubio said of his first professional victory.
“For me, it’s very special for my career. I’ve had a lot of problems in previous years and I didn’t have the opportunity to express my talent like I would have liked.
“For me and my family, it’s an incredible day, and I hope now I can continue on the same road. It’s my birthday too, so I couldn’t have asked for a better present.”
Rubio went on the offensive in the company of teammate Albert Torres, and then pressed on alone to open a lead of almost a minute over the chasing group.
The Colombian still had a 45-second advantage when he entered the final 3km and he managed his lead comfortably to take the honours.
Evenepoel admitted his disappointment at missing out on victory, but his sprint has put him on course to claim overall victory at the UAE Tour.
Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious, third overall at 11 seconds, is the only other rider within a minute of the Belgian.
“Of course, it’s a pity as we came so close to the first guy for the victory,” Evenepoel said. “I think with my sprint, I could have won the stage, but in the end the red jersey is a very nice reward also for the team.
“We had some bad luck, a few guys had a flat tyre on the climb and they had to come back, so we couldn’t actually execute the plan like we wanted.
“I wanted some guys to really speed up in the last kilometres so we could maybe catch the guy and I could do my sprint, but I think everybody was really strong today.”
UAE Team Emirates rider Yates said: “We tried to put pressure on the other teams on the final climb and to be aggressive but we always knew there was a good chance things would stay together which they mostly did."
