Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) ended Jonathan Milan's hopes of a UAE Tour hat-trick as he overpowered the Lidl-Trek rider in a close sprint on stage 5.
Matteo Malucelli (Astana-XDS) produced a brilliant throw on the line to push the green jersey of Milan down into third, while Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was caught out by a late crash in the finishing straight.
Two crashes in the final 3km marred the technical finale at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, with several GC riders caught outside the neutralisation zone and fighting to limit their time losses, before a crash under the flamme rouge split the bunch in half.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) ripped up the rulebook for flat stages by spending more than 100km in a breakaway, and the red jersey extended his overall lead over second-placed Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) to 21 seconds by winning the day’s first intermediate sprint, picking up three bonus seconds in the process.
Merlier seemed to carry too much speed into the finishing area and flew over his handlebars, but he confirmed there was no harm done.
“We discussed yesterday with the team what we did wrong, and today we did a really good job,” he said after the stage. “They brought me in a really good position towards the last one kilometre and a half, and in the last corner I came onto the wheel of Milan, then crash behind. I was waiting, waiting, waiting for my moment. I’m really happy.
“Some riders were really motivated to have a training day today, so it was a hard pace all day, but for us it was okay.”
Merlier’s win makes him the first rider to pick up six wins at the UAE Tour. He added, “I’m always happy to come over here. I like this country but also Saudi, Oman, I like to race in these kinds of races. Happy to take another victory here this season.”
How it unfolded
Looking at the pan-flat parcours, the peloton could be forgiven for thinking this was to be a straightforward day out for the sprinters.
But Pogačar evidently had other ideas. No sooner had a breakaway formed, not far outside the start at the American University Dubai, than the race leader organised a counterattack along with teammate Domen Novak. The peloton seemed satisfied that this was just a brief leg-shake, until suddenly Pogačar and a small group had half a minute on them and Josh Tarling (second-placed on GC) rallied the troops for the chase.
The Pogačar group soon merged with the original breakaway, consisting of Kristian Sbaragli, Carlos Samudio and black jersey Djordje Djuric (all Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini) and Federico Biagini and Manuele Tarozzi (both VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè).
It seemed the Slovenian had the first intermediate sprint, at Al Qudra Cycle Track, in mind, and he duly nicked the points – and three bonus seconds – on the line. Defending champion Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto), who was the only one GC rider to follow Pogačar’s attack, picked up second.
With 100km to go the 11-strong Pogačar group had nearly two and a half minutes on the bunch, and the sprinters’ teams were visibly irked. By the day’s second intermediate sprint, at Dubai Safari Park, it was a more manageable 40 seconds. Pogačar contested the sprint again but didn’t have it all his own way this time: Djuric crossed the line first and van Eetvelt nabbed a second back on the Slovenian.
By 38km to go it was back to square one as the bunch finally swamped the breakaway, over 100km after Pogačar’s attack.
As the speed ramped up once more a late crash took down multiple riders, with Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) among those affected and forced to frantically chase back on. The sprint teams reassembled on the technical finish, navigating a late chicane, but plenty of riders were derailed by another late crash which bisected the peloton.
Only 15 or so riders were able to contest the sprint, but once Merlier and Milan put the hammer down it looked like there were only two potential winners. It was the Belgian who came out on top in this particular duel, and even the Italian was knocked down another place as his compatriot Malucelli produced the sprint of his life to take second.
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