Tadej Pogacar rounded off his overall victory of the UAE Tour with a solo stage win on the Jabel Hafeet mountain on Sunday.
The 26-year-old swept all before him in 2024 taking a rare Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and world championships triple, and the UAE Tour was his first outing on 2025.
Pogacar attacked early on the 10km culminating climb to finish 33sec ahead on the day.
"I didn’t want to be surprised by a counter attack or anything. It was better to go at my own pace," the Slovenian explained.
Italian climber Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek was second Sunday and second overall at 1min 14sec, with Spanish rider Pello Bilbao of Bahrain coming third overall.
Pogacar dominated the week-long race after coming third in Tuesday's time trial and then winning the first of two mountain stages on Wednesday.
Riding for the UAE Emirates Team, Pogacar picked up his 90th win here and was already looking ahead to his busy spring one-day classics campaign.
"Now I won’t take part in any stage race until June so I will switch my mind to one-day classics and I hope to do well there," he said.
Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan, also of Lidl-Trek, laid down a season marker in the stages that ended with bunch finishes with two wins and the overall points jersey ahead of Belgian Quick Step rider Tim Merlier.
Josh Tarling of Ineos had led the young rider standings since winning the stage two time trial but dropped down to 10th on Sunday with Movistar's Ivan Romeo, 23, taking the white jersey.
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