Sam Bennett wins final stage of UAE Tour

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It was third time lucky for Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) as he won the final stage of the UAE Tour at the Dubai City Tour, beating Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal). Meanwhile, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) enjoyed an uneventful day to claim the overall title, having led the overall classification right from the very first stage.

Lotto Soudal led the peloton into the final kilometres of the stage with Ewan sitting in third wheel but the Australian was quickly swept up as UAE Team Emirates came from behind. Bennett used a similar tactic to the one that he took on stage 5 into Khor Fakkan and utilised the wheel of Gaviria to drag him through to the right position. Having got his timing wrong on the first two sprint stages, Bennett timed his run to perfection on Saturday afternoon to beat Gaviria by a mere wheel's length.

It is Bennett's first WorldTour win of the season and his second overall after he claimed the final stage of the Vuelta a San Juan. In a field that contains some of the world's best sprinters, it is a morale-boosting victory for Bennett, who let out a roar of delight after crossing the line.

"I needed that. The team did a fantastic job again. I tried to fight for Gaviria's wheel. Today I had the legs to finish it off. I knew if you could get a win here with all the top sprinters, it means you are not so bad. This is good for my confidence. I'm looking forward to the other nice races coming up."

With just this sprint stage remaining, Roglic had all-but sealed the overall victory with a 31-second advantage over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and 44 seconds over David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). It wouldn't be a simple conclusion with winds sweeping through the centre of Dubai and battering the peloton.

"It was nervous with all this wind, but we showed once again that we’re a strong team and we brought the jersey to the end," Roglic said. "It's my first race and it’s really nice to start like that. We did some big work here. It's nice to get some results already."

How it happened

After rain drenched the penultimate stage start, the final stage of the UAE Tour began in the grounds of the Dubai Safari park under sunny skies. However, it was far from warm with winds sweeping through the start area and around the city.

Just after 1 p.m. local time, the peloton rolled out for the final time this week with Roglic wearing the red jersey as he had done all week. The weather made for a nervous peloton once again, but this time they avoided the pitfalls of the previous day.

A break quickly formed with three riders getting up the road in the opening kilometres. Unusually, none of the wildcard teams made it into the move, instead, it was a full WorldTour compliment of riders with Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale), Dmitry Gruzdev (Astana) and William Clarke (Trek-Segafredo) going clear.

The break was never given much freedom by the peloton behind, allowing them a maximum of 4:40. Bit by bit, the peloton began reeling the three riders in, finally catching them inside the last three kilometres.

The sprinters' teams were already at full pelt by this point, and the various trains began jostling for position. Ewan opened up his sprint first after a strong lead-out by his Lotto Soudal team, but he was quickly overtaken as Alexander Kristoff charged forward with teammate Gaviria in his wheel.

Bennett held his position in the wheel of Gaviria before striking out to overhaul him in the final metres.

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