UAE Tour stage 4: Sam Bennett beats back rivals for inaugural win of 2021

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) dashed to his first victory in 2021 in a bunch sprint Wednesday in stage 4 at the UAE Tour.

Last year’s green jersey winner at the Tour de France came off a solid lead-out from Michael Mørkøv, and won in the first major clash among the peloton’s top sprinters.

“I had to wait a few days, so it feels real good to win,” Bennett said. “I was really nervous before doing the first bunch sprint of the season. All I had to do was follow the guys and finish it off. This is my 50th career win, and I want to thank the guys for doing a great job.”

Arch-rival Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) was on Bennett’s wheel, but swept right instead of staying along the fences, and could not recover ground to finish third. WorldTour rookie David Dekker (Jumbo-Visma), son of ex-pro Erik Dekker, made a long sprint without teammates to come in behind Bennett to finish second for the second time in this week.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Emirates), winner of Tuesday’s uphill finale, finished safely in the bunch to retain the overall leader’s jersey with three stages to go.

Early break duly reeled in

Anticipation was high for Wednesday’s stage, and the peloton’s top sprinters were all champing at the bit to get their shot at victory.

Following Tuesday’s GC fireworks, the sprinters were ready to step into the fore in Wednesday’s mostly flat run starting and finishing on Al Marjan Island. Crosswinds were a threat, but they never picked up, and the peloton did not see a repeat of the echelons that busted up the bunch in Sunday’s opener, and denied the sprinters a chance for the win.

Two riders — Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) and François Bidard (Ag2r-Citroën) — dutifully peeled off the front. They never opened up too much space, and riders rode in the slipstream comfortably chatting in the bunch until the move was snuffed out with about 30km to go.

The top sprinter teams massed at the front, and the speed finally ramped up with about 10km to go. The bunch momentarily split down the middle as rival sprint trains started to rev up the speed on each side of the wide road.

After a mostly sluggish stage, the speed revved up as the sprinter trains fought for position for the prestige of the first major sprint finish between the peloton’s top bunch sprinters in 2021.

Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) opened up the sprint first but faded to finish sixth. Coming in behind Ewan for fourth was Elia Viviani (Cofidis), with Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) rounding out the top-5.

Final climbing test on tap Thursday

The third UAE Tour continues Thursday with the second and final mountaintop finale that should button up the GC. The 170km fifth stage starts at Fujairah Marine Club and ends atop Jebel Jais. 

There are some early unrated hills that should trigger the day’s main breakaway, but no one who is a threat on GC will be allowed to stay away in what’s the best chance for a breakaway to stick this week. With UAE-Emirates racing on home roads, expect the team to keep a tight leash on things.

The climb is long at 21.4km, with an average grade of 5.4 percent. Expect a reduced group of elite climbers to come in for a hot sprint. In its last appearance in 2019, Primož Roglič won the stage ahead of Tom Dumoulin out of a group of nine en route to winning the overall.