Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) soloed home to win stage 6 of the UAE Tour atop the race's second summit finish at Jebel Hafeet, distancing Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and taking the race lead in the process.
The Mexican attacked 2.5km from the top of the climb, putting in an acceleration that Tiberi couldn't match. For the remainder of the climb, the Italian went backwards, eventually finishing the day in fourth at 31 seconds down.
Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) and Felix Gall (Decathlon-CMA CGM) passed Tiberi before the line to fill out the podium.
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Del Toro now leads the UAE Tour ahead of the final sprint stage, having more than made up the 21-second deficit to Tiberi. He now holds a 20-second advantage while Plapp lies in third overall at 1:14 down.
"This is just a mentality game, that you can be confident enough to keep trying and, of course, if one time it doesn't work, you still need to have it in your head that you're able to do it," Del Toro said of his attacks on the final climb.
"Today, we were not confident that we will win, but we had the mentality that we would work for it."
"I needed to keep going until the line. When I saw the gap, I tried to believe and increase the gap as much as I can.
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"I think today is one of the top three victories in my career. It's so special, and when you win with a team like this it's even more special. Now, it's time to realise that I'm working for it and I need to believe more in myself day by day."
How it unfolded
The break of the day out on the road to Jebel Hafeet (Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage 6 of the UAE Tour would be the final chance to make a difference at the top of the GC standings, holding as it did the second summit finish of the race ahead of a sprint closer.
The 168km from Al Ain Museum to Jebel Hafeet were largely pan-flat but came with a sting in the tail in the form of the closing climb, which ran for 10.6km at an average of 6.9%.
The opening 30km of the stage would be characterised by frequent, if unsuccessfu,l attacks at the front of the peloton as riders tried and failed to establish a breakaway.
A group of nine riders eventually made it away with around 130km to run, with Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-CMA CGM) joined in the move by Axel Huens, Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ United), Josh Tarling, Peter Øxenberg (Ineos Grenadiers), Mark Stewart (Modern Adventure), Alessandro Romele (XDS-Astana), Mattia Gaffuri (Picnic-PostNL), and Owain Doull (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Callum Thornley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello-Q36.5) attempted to make it across the gap, but the pair didn't succeed, eventually being reabsorbed by the peloton 10km later.
Teams including UAE, Lotto-Intermarché, and Bahrain Victorious worked to contain the breakaway's advantage, which never reached further than two minutes – even on the long, flat run which made up the majority of the stage.
Antonio Tiberi crosses the line having lost the red jersey on the finishing climb (Image credit: Getty Images)
Much of the stage was a quiet affair, with the break racing along around two minutes up and the peloton in no hurry to make the catch. Huens led the race over the first sprint of the day with 106km to go.
Soon afterwards, Doull dropped back from the breakaway, leaving eight riders out front. Romele would also lose contact along the way, and with 20km left to run, the gap remained at two minutes.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe moved to the front en masse before the start of the final climb, while up front, Jacobs led Bissegger over the day's second and final sprint with 14km to go.
At the start of the climb, the remaining breakaway men held onto a 1:25 lead, though Jacobs and Stewart both dropped out of the move in the early kilometres of the ascent. At the 10km marker, Tarling made his way to the front to push the pace, subsequently dropping Huens, Gaffuri, and Bissegger.
The Ineos pairing were the last men left standing, while further back it was Decathlon-CMA CGM who had moved to the head of the peloton. The French squad's efforts shredded the main group, leaving a select group of around 15 or so contenders by the 6km mark.
Soon enough they'd lead the race after Tarling finished his work at the front, leaving Øxenberg to battle on briefly before he too was caught. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) made an attempt to break clear with 6km to go, but soon enough he was going out the rear, losing contact for good with 5km to run. Gall countered the move with Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) going with him
4km from the summit, Del Toro launched the first of his moves, immediately isolating himself and Tiberi as the rest of the hopefuls dropped back.
The pair soon caught and passed Gall and Tejada, while Plapp came across to make a trio up front. That grouping wouldn't last long, however, with Del Toro striking the killer blow 2.5km from the finish. Tiberi couldn't match the upping of the pace, and so his race was done. He didn't fully explode, but lost enough ground to fall out of the red jersey, likely for good with only a final sprint stage left to run.
Del Toro celebrates on the podium as the new race leader (Image credit: Getty Images)
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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