For a long time, the race situation remained unchanged on the third day in the United Arab Emirates. Immediately after the start, teammates Silvan Dillier and Jonas Rickaert went on the attack, and the duo built up a lead of several minutes. With Jebel Mobrah - today’s steep summit finish (14.9 km at 8.6%) - approaching, the gap began to shrink and the general classification favorites took control of the race.

“I’m very happy with today’s result”, Nordhagen says afterwards. “I quickly felt that I had good legs. When the real favorites started attacking, I knew I had to stay patient to avoid blowing myself up. That’s what I did. The final part of the climb was incredibly steep, I fought all the way to the top. Finishing eighth gives me a lot of satisfaction.”

Sports director Maarten Wynants was full of praise for the young Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider. “Jørgen did an excellent job today. The other riders also played a big role in his strong result. It was a very honest climb today - a real wall, like the Angliru on a highway. Extremely tough, but Jørgen is showing great development.”

Part of that group were Nordhagen, Wilco Kelderman, Tijmen Graat, and Ben Tulett. The Brit stayed near the front together with Nordhagen for a long time, but could no longer follow the high pace in the final phase and was dropped. Despite repeated attacks, Nordhagen held his ground. The 21-year-old Norwegian eventually finished eighth behind stage winner Antonio Tiberi, who had attacked solo shortly before. Kelderman and Graat also finished in the top twenty, with general classification leader Remco Evenepoel losing his jersey.

Over the next four days, the riders will face one more mountain finish in the UAE Tour. Stage six is now circled in red on the Dutch team’s schedule. “Jebel Hafeet is a very different type of climb, but with legs like today I’ll do everything I can to secure a top ten overall result there”, Nordhagen says. Wynants adds: “And with Wilco and Tijmen, we’re still in a strong position as well. We came here with a strong and well-balanced team, which was clear today and should pay off again on Saturday.”