On the final stage of the UAE Tour, which marked his 34th Birthday, Pello Bilbao provided the perfect gift to himself to get onto the podium, placing 2nd on the stage and claiming 3rd in the GC.

At the start of the day, Bilbao sat in 5th place overall some 22 seconds behind the race leader Jay Vine (UAE Emirates). After last year, where Bilbao was knocked off the podium on the final day, the Basque rider was motivated to not lose out this year on the iconic Hafeet climb which averages out at 6% for 10.8km with sections that peak at 11% gradients.

Unlike previous years, strong winds and sandy skies meant the peloton needed to remain vigilant for the 150km before the climb to ensure no GC men could take advantage of echelons during the stage. In the first few km an early break of four riders formed and were given a gap of 8 minutes by the peloton, with ourselves, UAE and Decathlon keeping the gap within reach before the foot of Jebel Hafeet.

One hundred kilometers into the race, echelons started and Bilbao was caught out losing 14 seconds to the first peloton group, meaning TBV had to work hard to bridge the gap and bring it all back together.

By the foot of the climb, it was all back together with only one rider from the break away still out in front with a gap of over a minute. At that point Torstein went on the front and put in a tremendous effort to bridge the gap for the GC hopefuls, managing to catch the final breakaway rider at around 5km from the finish. From then on, it was one of the most exciting battles on Hafeet with plenty of attacks and counter attacks. At 3km to go Bilbao launched his attack, but was left to work out on his own and Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) perfectly timed his move, riding away from Bilbao and O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R) to win the stage. With second place to fight for, Bilbao was the strongest from the riders to take second on the stage and move up to third overall.

Pello Bilbao commented:” It was a really strange day, super intense racing, and maybe I was too excited in the last climb. I was feeling really strong, I wanted to go for the victory, for my Birthday for my teammates. They did an incredible job today. I destroyed all the team just to save my a**, just to try and comeback, they did an incredible job. I wanted to dedicate the victory today for them, to my kid and also for me on my birthday. But it was not possible, no, I raced with my heart and not so much with my head. In the end, in the critical moment, I couldn’t follow the best wheel. I just needed to be focussed, stay second in the stage, take the bonus and fight for the options of the podium.

Okay, after an intense seven days of racing, we are on the podium. Yesterday was also a good stage with Phil. So it’s not bad, no?. I’m happy with the attitude the team showed during all the race and especially today they were incredible. I enjoyed racing here once again and I hope the spectators also enjoyed the intense race.”