Tim Merlier (Souܫdal-QuickStep) celebrates stage 6 victory(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton at the start of stage 6(Image credit: Getty Images)
The break of the day(Image credit: Getty Images)
Riders pass the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton speeds past art in Abu Dhabi(Image credit: Getty Images)
Thꦗe rider𓃲s took on a sprint at Yas Marina Circuit along the way(Image credit: Getty Images)
The sprint🌱 teams controlling the breakaway's advantage on the flat stage(Image credit: Getty Images)
Riders speed past the scenery in Abu Dhabi(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton races along a highway on stage 6(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton pass the high-rise buildin𒐪gs of Abu Dhabi(Image credit: Getty Images)
The sprint teams lead towards the finish(Image credit: Getty Images)
Merlier blasted pas♊t his rivals to dominate the ꦦsprint finish(Image credit: Getty Images)
Celebrations after the line for Merlier and his Soudal-QuickSte🔜p tea🤪mmates(Image credit: Getty Images)
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) sped to his second sprint win in two days at the UAE Tour, launching early on the curving 🍬finish straight at Abu Dhabi Breakwater to claim a dominant victory.
The European champi🥀on came around the two-men sprint trains of Tudor and Alpecin-Deceuninck to jump early into the heไadwind and pull out a gap on his rivals in the closing metres of the race's penultimate stage.
The finish came after several sprint teams fought to control the closing kilometres, with the remains of the day's breakaway brought back 2.5km from the lineඣ.
Picnic-PostNL and Lidl-Trek were among the teams with trains on the front speeding towards the line, but it was Tudor who🐟 hit the front inside the final kilometre. The Swiss squad wouldn't have any joy in the closing sprint, however, with Merlier launching early and coming around the outside on the bending run to the line.
Starting from a position much further back than his main rivals, Merlier was already at full speed and flying past before the likes of Philipsen and Milan could launch. The 32-year-old blasted through to hit the front and cla💫im a dominant win as๊ the other sprinters picked up the scraps behind him.
"I was in the washing machine like they sa♋y. I found a gap at 300 to go and tried 🙈to surprise the others. The headwind was a really long effort, so I'm suffering," Merlier said after the finish.
"꧃It was really difficult to organise. Also, my lead-out crashed yesterday so maybe it wasn't a good idea to do real work today. But we tried what we could. We lost each other at 1.9km to go.
"I missed him to make some space for me and I was boxed in, boxed in, boxed in all the time. I thought I wasn't going to ma💝ke it but I found a gap with 300 to 𓆉go and then I just gave it a try and it was enough.
"Like every opportunity is an ൩important one. I'm jus✱t happy with the win again."
Sunday's final stage, the closing summit finish at Jebel Hafeet, now looms, with the battle for the red jersey set to erupt again. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emiraꦺtes-XRG) continues in the overall lead on Saturday evening. He enjoys a 15-second advantage over Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), while Iván Romeo (Movistar) l♉ies third overall at 27 seconds.
How it unfolded
The penultimate stage of the UAE Tour would deliver another expected sprint finish at the end of a pan-flat 165km run from Abu Dhabi Cycling Club to Abu Dhabi Breakwater. Foll𒀰owing three sprint stages in five days, stage 6 would be the final chance for the fastmen to take a stage victory.
With little to fight for along the way, barring two intermediate sprints, the fight for the breakaway was a short one, delivering riders from Solution Tech-🍌Vini Fantini and VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè to the front.
Vini Fantini trio – black jersey Đorđe Đurić, Kristian Sbaragli, and Carlos Samudio – were joined in the move by Bardiani rider Manuele Tarozzi after the quartet attacked in the opening kilometres of the stage.
Several sprint squads took up the pacemaking load in the peloton, with Visma-Lease A Bike joine🌱d by Soudal-QuickStep, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe putting men on the front.
The teams limited the time gap to the break t🅷o around 2:30 at its maximum, with the situation well under control as the riders sped past Abu Dhabi Airport, the Yas Marina Circuit, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and a series of islands in the city before heading for the finish.
Aided by his two teammates, Đurić duly extended his black sprints jersey lead at the Yas Marina Circuit sprint 70km after the start with his five-point lead over Tarozzi growing to 10 there.
The day's second and final sprint came at Qasr Al Hosn 23km from the finish. With the peloton closing to within a minute of the break, Vini Fantini worked once again to deliver Đurić the full eight points. With Tarozzi taking third place, the Serbian added another five points to his total to lead by 15 heading into the final day.
From there, it was up to the sprint squads, with Soudal-QuickStep, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and Picnic-PostNL among the teams leading the chase into the final 10km. Đurić and Sabaragli were the first riders from the break brought back, dropping away from Tarozzi and Samudio with 5km to go.
The remaining duo kept battling on with an evꦦer-slimming advantage on the wide roads running towards the finish, however. But with multiple sprint trains lining🥂 up across the highway, their time was numbered.
In the end, the final catch was made at 2.5km from theꦇ line, leaving the sprint teams to fight over the final kilometres.
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Dani Ostanek is S🙈enior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2༺017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur. She writes and edits at Cyclingnews as well as running newsletter, social media, and how to watch campaigns.
