UAE Tour: Sam Bennett wins stage 6

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Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) claimed his second stage victory of the 2021 UAE Tour with a convincing sprint on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah island.

As with his win two days ago, the Irishman profited from the work of his lead-out man Michael Mørkøv, and he put daylight between himself and his rivals in the final 150 metres.

Elia Viviani (Cofidis), who lost his lead-out man Fabio Sabatini to a crash, finished second, with Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) third after a long sprint.

Overall leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the peloton to retain the red jersey with one stage remaining.

Despite the peloton briefly splitting in the desert, the pan-flat 165km stage headed quietly towards a bunch sprint, although the windy finish on Palm Jumeirah – accessed via a dark tunnel and composed of curved boulevards – made for a hectic finale.

Ineos Grenadiers led the way to the final kilometres, while BikeExchange led into the final kilometre, but it was Deceuninck-QuickStep – and more specifically Morkov – who got it spot on. Whereas the Dane had guided Bennett into position on stage 4, this time he came through to provide a more traditional lead-out, with Bennett hitting out with just over 150 metres to go.

From there, he made no mistake. David Dekker (Jumbo-Visma) was on his wheel but moved out into the wind and faded, as Viviani sprinted in Bennett’s slipstream to take second place and provide further evidence that he is on his way back to form.

Ackermann started sprinting earlier than any of them, having lost Bennett’s wheel and having had to interrupt his initial effort. He bashed his bars in frustration on the line, his third place impressive but ultimately frustrating.   

"It feels amazing. Again, I wouldn't have done it without my teammates today,” Bennett said.

"I think the more sprints we do together, the better we're getting. It's becoming more second nature. It's just about repeating the same thing and making decisions in the final. We're really getting to know each other and we're pretty much nailing it at the minute.”

How it unfolded

The stage started out with an early breakaway forming with a minimum of fuss, as Tony Gallopin (AG2R Citroën), Alexey Lutsenko, Luis León Sánchez (Astana-Premier Tech), Matthieu Ladagnous, Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ), and Iñigo Elosegui (Movistar) forged clear.

Gallopin made use of the intermediate sprints to take the black jersey off Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), but there was never any real hope of the group staying away. They were kept on a tight leash all day, never gaining more than four minutes over the peloton, where most of the sprinters’ teams chipped in.

There wasn’t much action in the first half of the race, beyond the abandons of Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) and Florian Stork (Team DSM) – who was 12th overall – due to crashes.

With 72km to go, the race suddenly burst into life as the riders felt the wind coming from the side. A big surge in pace led to a group of around 30 riders being detached from the peloton. After several kilometres, they were 30 seconds in arrears, but things calmed down in the front peloton and they made their way back into the fold.

The flurry of action did, however, bring the gap to the breakaway down to a minute with 50km to go. That steadily diminished to the point where the break was caught with 25km remaining.

At that point Dimitri Gruzdev (Astana) launched a speculative new solo breakaway. He was allowed to dangle out front for around 10km but he was calmly brought to heel as Movistar led the bunch.

With 10km to go, things intensified again, with the tunnel onto the Palm Jumeirah presenting a possible pitfall. Sabatini and Matteo Sobrero (Astana) crashed as the peloton swung across to the other side of the highway to enter it, but the bunch otherwise made it out into the light unscathed.

Ineos were dominating the front at that point, although Deceuninck-QuickStep and the other sprint teams moved up in the final few kilometres. After a U-Turn to take them up to the finish line at the tip of the island, DSM flooded the front, followed by BikeExchange, who managed to hold their position all the way to the flamme rouge. They started to lead out, and Bora-Hansgrohe were also prominent, but it was Morkov and Bennett who got it right and set themselves up for a hattrick on Saturday’s final stage.