Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jumbo-Visma) proved to be the strongest of the sprinters on stage 4 of UAE Tour as he out-sprinted Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Pascal Ackermann (BORA-hansgrohe) on the line in Dubai. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) had no problems keeping the leader’s jersey.

Right from the start of the stage, Will Clarke (Trek-Segafredo) and Veljko Stojnić (Vini Zabù - KTM) decided to leave the peloton behind and spend the day at the front. The two riders worked well together but they never got more than a four minute’s gap on the pack.

After the second intermediate sprint, Stojnić was no longer interested in fighting in the break, leaving Clarke on his own with over 30 km left to go. What already seemed like an impossible task just became even more difficult but Clarke wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He managed to build up a gap of over two minutes on the peloton before the teams of the sprinters reacted.

For a short while, it looked like the Trek-Segafredo might be able to pull it off but ultimately, after a long and admirable fight, Clarke had to see his slim chances of success disappear as got caught by the peloton with 7.5 km to go.

The fight for positions amongst the sprinters was a fierce as ever on the final kilometers. At the end, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) was the first one to launch his sprint with 150 meters to go. However, Groenewegen was quick to follow and managed to pass the Irishmann with Gaviria and Ackermann on his wheel.

Tomorrow, the GC riders will get a last chance to move up in the general classification as the peloton takes on the second and last mountain top finish in the race. Once again, it’s the ascent on Jebel Hafeet that awaits the riders. It will be interesting to see if Yates can repeat what he did the other day or if someone else has what it takes to claim the win.