UAE Tour: Lennert Van Eetvelt wins overall as UAE Team Emirates implode on Jebel Hafeet

Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) took the biggest victory of his career to win stage 7 and the final overall standings at the 2024 UAE Tour.

The Belgian attacked on the final slopes of Jebel Hafeet with 1.7km to go and finished clear of the chase group that included several pre-race favourites. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) finished second on the stage at 22 seconds, with Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) in third.

In the final overall standings Van Eetvelt finished just two seconds clear of O'Connor, with Bilbao completing the podium at 11 seconds in arrears.

It was a stage to forget for UAE Team Emirates. The home team came into the stage with hopes of taking the title and sat first and second overall through Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty but the American cracked on the final climb before Vine slipped out of contention soon after.

Van Eetvelt, 22, came into the final stage of this year's race sitting in ninth overall at 37 seconds and few recognised the Belgian as a potential GC winner before the final climb began. However the young Belgian timed his move to perfection, allowing the likes of Bilbao and O'Connor to trade accelerations before latching onto a key attack with 2.1km to go.

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With 1.7km to go and leader on the road O'Connor starting to suffer and fixate on Bilbao, Van Eetvelt struck for him. A late chase from the remnants of the front group failed to make an impression with Van Eetvelt taking the win, and the bonus seconds to take a well-deserved but surprising win.

"Unbelievable, I cannot be believe it. This morning everyone was telling me just go for everything, try to win GC, you can do it and I was like 'come on guys we have to stay realistic. I'm still far behind, a lot of the world's best guys are still there'. But this was the plan, this was what I had in my head and I cannot believe that I pulled it off," the stage and GC winner said at the finish.

Crosswinds and break provide early entertainment

The final stage of the UAE Tour was always destined to come down to a dogfight at the summit of Jebel Hafeet, especially with 14 riders separated by under a minute and vital WorldTour points up for grabs.

The early break was formed by veteran Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) alongside Jonas Rickaert and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin - Deceuninck), and Mark Stewart (Team Corratec - Vini Fantini).

The quartet built up an extension of close to nine minutes before the GC teams began to chase but several sections of crosswinds saw the gap drastically tumble to a more manageable four minutes inside the final 50km. 

At one point Bilbao and several other GC riders found themselves in a second chasing group after one particularly strenuous crosswind section but with 37km to go the main field regrouped. Out front, the leaders ploughed on but with the final climb approaching their advantage dipped to within two minutes with 20km to go.

The Jebel Hafeet climb, 10.9km in length with a steeper gradient at 6.7%, blew the break to pieces almost immediately with just Buchmann and Buchmann clear as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team set the pace for the peloton in a bid to dislodge UAE Team Emirates from the leader’s red jersey.

The French team could hardly believe their luck with McNulty, who started third overall, cracked almost immediately and within just a few minutes Vine followed suit. In between those two instances, Mikkel Bjerg briefly set the pace, but when he was called back by Vine the writing was on the wall, with the Australian succumbing to the relentless pace with 7.2km to go.

That left O’Connor as the virtual leader on the road and while Buchmann still held a one-minute leader after dropping Dillier, it was clear that the fight for the stage and the GC would come down to the dozen or so riders still left in O’Connor’s group.

However, just as with UAE Team Emirates, O’Connor’s team quickly began to falter with Bilbao shredding the GC group with his first of many accelerations. A volley of attacks soon followed, with Bilbao striking out for a second time with 3.7km to go. Another 400m up the road and the Bahrain rider kicked again but each move was quickly nullified by O’Connor. Max Poole had his attack wrenched back soon after and with 3km to go Buchmann was eventually reeled in.

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Several more attacks followed with Carlos Verona making two digs before Bilbao went for a third time on the steepest section with 2.8km to go. O’Connor was slow to respond this time and wisely waited for the climb to ease before catching his main rival but with 2.1km remaining Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step), Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), and Van Eetvelt jumped clear. Just when it looked as though the race was still in the balance Van Eetvelt kicked again and soared away with 1.7km to go.

Storer, O’Connor and Bilbao all took turns leading the chase but there was no denying Van Eetvelt the biggest victory of his young career.