The UAE Team Emirates with Adam Yates was the favourite to win on the mighty Jabal al Akhdar (The Green Mountain) in the Queen stage of the Tour of Oman. The Briton set a new record on the steep climb, indicating that it will be hard for anyone to challenge Yates in the upcoming UAE Tour on Jebel Hafeet.
With only 66 kilometres before Jabal al Akhdar, this meant that the annual Tour of Oman w/kg (5.7 km, 10%) festival would become even more impressive with very low fatigue before the climb. Anton Palzer before the final w/kg test spent 1078 kilojoules for 1:31h, which is 11.6 kj/kg/h—an easy pace for pro riders who after that could smash the climb basically fresh.
UAE-Emirates had brought an impressive squad with Adam Yates and Finn Fisher-Black who won the first hilltop finish and was wearing the red leader’s jersey. It was a cross tailwind on the climb and with the UAE mountain train pacing, it looked likely that the record would be broken again.
Adam Yates, who is a specialist at Jebel Hafeet in the UAE Tour, was confident in his legs and kept a high pace in the last kilometres of Jabal al Akhdar. Jan Hirt who won on the climb in 2022 was the only rider from the peloton who could attack from Yates’ initial pacing.
21-year-old Huub Artz was still ahead of them as the last survivor of the breakaway but he was caught by Yates and Hirt, finishing in the 3rd place. Yates at the end beat Hirt by 11 seconds and won the Tour of Oman GC. Cristian Rodriguez was the third fastest from the peloton and after him followed two UAE Emirates riders Finn Fisher-Black and Diego Ulissi.
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Yates did 6.79 ᵉW/Kg for 18:04 min, breaking the 2023 record set by Mauri Vansevenant and Matteo Jorgenson by 8 seconds. Vansevenant today finished 8th, losing 66 seconds to the winner. Yates’ performance is high for the February w/kg test but in the 2023 UAE Tour on Jebel Hafeet, he did a more impressive performance, beating Remco Evenepoel, pushing 6.72 ᵉW/Kg for 25:52 min. With no other superstar climbers going to the UAE Tour in 2024, it will be a hard task to beat the Tour de France podium finisher of last year. Fisher-Black, who finished 6th in the stage, did 6.51 ᵉW/Kg for 18:48 min, showing another good performance. 19-year-old riders Johannes Kulset and Alexy Faure Pros performed well for their age, finishing 9th and 11th on a pure w/kg test.
QQ, how do you guys gets these numbers? Is it just inferred by speed (verified) v. weight (claimed) v. gradient (known)?
Hi CyclerDude,
They put up an article in 2023 on w/kg that includes a section on how they calculate the values for these efforts. Its a good read https://lanternerouge.com/2023/02/07/watts-primer/
Thanks!