Tipperary cyclist Sam Bennett take sprint win in UAE Tour

Tipperary cyclist Sam Bennett won the final sprint stage of the UAE Tour in Dubai on Saturday.

Sam Bennett crossing the finish line in first place Photo: BORA - hansgrohe / Bettiniphoto

On the final day of the UAE Tour, the riders took on 145km of racing between Dubai Safari Park and Dubai Walk. The flat parcours was tailored to the sprinters and was capped off, as expected, with a thrilling bunch gallop.

Right from the get go, three riders escaped from the peloton and were able to distance themselves by more than 4:30 from the main field behind. The race progressed in a fairly calm manner to the finish, and the peloton did not appear to be in any particular hurry to reel in the leading trio. It was only in the latter part of the race that the escapees’ lead began to be whittled down.

In the last 10km, BORA – hansgrohe took over a large portion of the tempo setting, and the breakaway was caught not long afterwards. The teams of the sprinters, including BORA – hansgrohe, then began to jostle for position. After the last corner, in a fast-paced sprint finish in Dubai to cap off the final stage of the race, Caleb Ewan opened up his sprint, but was overtaken by Alexander Kristoff and Fernando Gaviria.

After an excellent lead-out by his teammates, Sam Bennett was able to push past the sprinters in the final metres, and cross the line in first position to take his second win of the season. In terms of the general classification, Emu Buchmann ended the UAE Tour in fourth position overall, while BORA – hansgrohe also took out the team classification.