UAE Tour: Philipsen sprints to stage 5 victory

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Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Fenix took his second win of the UAE Tour on stage 5, beating out Jumbo-Visma youngster Olav Kooij on Al Marjan Island after a hectic run-in.

The Belgian won on pure speed after riding Sam Bennett's (Bora-Hansgrohe) wheel in the final kilometre and jumping into space after the Irishman launched his sprint along the near-side barrier.

Bennett went first but was no match for Philipsen in the end, seeming to fade as the 23-year-old Belgian sped past in the closing metres. 20-year-old neo-pro Kooij nipped Bennett on the line to grab second in the first race of his pro-career, while Matteo Malucelli (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Rudy Barbier (Israel-Premier Tech) rounded out the top five.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) retains the overall race lead, having extended his advantage over Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) to four seconds via an intermediate sprint. The Slovenian was not afraid to jump into an echelon attack with Alpecin-Fenix and several teammates after just 40km of the stage and then sprint to the line. Adam Yates and Ineos Grenadiers missed the split and were forced to lead the chase until Pogacar and the rest eased-up after taking the time bonuses.  

A late puncture scare forced him to chase back to the peloton at seven kilometres to go but he made and kept the red leader's jersey for another day.

"It was a really fast finish and we lined up really well with the team. We had a good plan," Philipsen explained the chaos and sprinting skills needed to win. 

"In the last kilometre my lead out man lost his chain so that was a bit of chaos to find a good wheel. In the end it all came out well so super happy." 

Philipsen extended his lead in the green jersey points competition thanks to his sprinting prowess and is the favourite to win Friday's fifth stage and final sprint opportunity in Dubai, on the often windswept Atlantis hotel coastline.  

"Winning never gets boring so it's just the same adrenaline feeling. We just go for it again. Everything that comes tomorrow is extra and we'll be motivated for it as always," he said.

How it unfolded

The stage was a pan flat 182km ride but was far from a quiet day in the saddle after Alpecin-Fenix and UAE Team Emirates went on the attack when cross winds blew slightly and offered a chance to gain precious bonus seconds and points in the first intermediate sprint.       

Around 35 riders made the split when Alpecin-Fenix surged hard. Surprisingly Ineos Grenadiers missed it and were forced to chase hard to keep Adam Yates in overall contention. Filippo Ganna did several huge turns on the front but for a moment the race seemed to be slipping away from them as the front echelon worked smoothly and opened a gap on the large, exposed highways.

Pogacar sensed an opportunity at the intermediate sprint and even had the courage to fight for the three, two and one-second time bonuses. 

He kicked early in the hope of causing a surprise but Philipsen was quickly onto him and then passed him to take maximum points. However Pogacar was second and so collected two bonus seconds to extend his overall lead before Saturday’s final showdown on Jebel Hafeet mountain. 

Fortunately for Ineos Grenadiers, Philipsen and Pogacar were not interested in racing hard for the remaining 130km and so eased up and focused on the finish. 

The regrouping allowed for another attack to form with Johnatan Cañaveral and Alessandro Tonelli there for Bardiani-CSF, while Pavel Kochetkov and Dmitry Strakhov made sure they were up there for Gazprom-RusVelo. 

This time, in the absence of cross winds, the break was allowed to sweep up the second intermediate time bonuses and points as the peloton kept them in check and waited for the finish. They opened a lead of 3:15 with 90km to go but then were gradually reeled in. Ineos Grenadiers, QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, EF Education-EasyPost and Alpecin-Fenix did much of the work. 

The peloton was back together with 60km to go and a sense of peace emerged. However  Michael Kukrle (Gazprom-Rusvelo) attacked alone and was then allowed to open a 2:00 lead. His gap was still at 1:20 with 10km to go but the speed was very high and he was eventually caught with three kilometres to go as Pogacar also got back to the peloton.  

The sprint teams were in total charge but no one could control the sprint as the winding wide road and changed wind direction added extra factors. Israel-Premier Tech tried to lead on the right of the road but lacked the speed to dominate. 

After a late full roundabout and change of wind direction, Alpecin-Fenix finally hit out to set-up Philipsen. QuickStep-AlphaVinyl were not a threat in the absence of Cavendish and BikeExchange-Jayco were caught too far back, wrecking Dylan Groenwegen’s chances. 

Bora-Hansgrohe tried to lead out Bennett but he only served to give Philipsen an option after he lost his own leadout. Bennett kicked early in hope but Philipsen surged past him and won with an extra turn of speed.