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Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) sped to his second dash win in two days on the UAE Tour, launching early on the curving end straight at Abu Dhabi Breakwater to say a dominant victory.
The European champion got here across the two-men dash trains of Tudor and Alpecin-Deceuninck to leap early and pull out a spot on his rivals within the closing metres of the race’s penultimate stage.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was left to come back via for a distant second place, whereas double stage winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) rounded out the rostrum a whisker additional again.
The end got here after quite a lot of dash groups fought to regulate the closing kilometres, with the stays of the day’s breakaway introduced again 2.5km from the road.
Picnic-PostNL and Lidl-Trek had been among the many groups with trains on the entrance dashing in direction of the road, but it surely was Tudor who hit the entrance inside the ultimate kilometre. The Swiss squad would not have any pleasure within the closing dash, nevertheless, with Merlier launching early and coming across the outdoors on the bending run to the road.
More to come back…
How it unfolded
The penultimate stage of the UAE Tour would ship one other anticipated dash end on the finish of a pan-flat 165km run from Abu Dhabi Cycling Club to Abu Dhabi Breakwater. Following three dash levels in 5 days, stage 6 can be the ultimate probability for the fastmen to take a stage victory.
With little to combat for alongside the best way, barring two intermediate sprints, the combat for the breakaway was a brief one, delivering riders from Solution Tech-Vini Fantini and VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè to the entrance.
Vini Fantini trio – black jersey Đorđe Đurić, Kristian Sbaragli, and Carlos Samudio – had been joined within the transfer by Bardiani rider Manuele Tarozzi after the quartet attacked within the opening kilometres of the stage.
Several dash squads took up the pacemaking load within the peloton, with Visma-Lease A Bike joined by Soudal-QuickStep, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe placing males on the entrance.
The groups restricted the time hole to the break to round 2:30 at its most, with the scenario properly below management because the riders sped previous Abu Dhabi Airport, the Yas Marina Circuit, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and a sequence of islands within the metropolis earlier than heading for the end.
Aided by his two teammates, Đurić duly prolonged his black sprints jersey lead on the Yas Marina Circuit dash 70km after the beginning together with his five-point lead over Tarozzi rising to 10 there.
The day’s second and remaining dash got here at Qasr Al Hosn 23km from the end. With the peloton closing to inside a minute of the break, Vini Fantini labored as soon as once more to ship Đurić the complete eight factors. With Tarozzi taking third place, the Serbian added one other 5 factors to his whole to steer by 15 heading into the ultimate day.
From there, it was as much as the dash squads, with Soudal-QuickStep, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and Picnic-PostNL among the many groups main the chase into the ultimate 10km. Đurić and Sabaragli had been the primary riders from the break introduced again, dropping away from Tarozzi and Samudio with 5km to go.
The remaining duo stored battling on with an ever-slimming benefit on the extensive roads working in direction of the end, nevertheless. But with a number of dash trains lining up throughout the freeway, their time was numbered.
In the tip, the ultimate catch was made at 2.5km from the road, leaving the dash groups to combat over the ultimate kilometres.
Results
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