Stage favourite Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to his third victory of 2026 on stage 4 of the UAE Tour, powering ahead of his rivals in the fast, flat finish in Fujairah which saw the break only caught in the final 300m.
Coming round the four remaining breakaway riders in sight of the line, it was a slightly messy drag to the finish, but the powerful Milan proved fastest, beating Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling) into second, with his younger brother Matteo Milan (Groupama-FDJ United) in third.
Finishing safely in the bunch, stage 3 winner Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) continues to lead the race and will wear the red jersey again on Friday’s flat stage.
A breakaway of five riders – Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Stefan de Bod (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Patrick Gamper (Jayco AlUla) and James Knox (Picnic PostNL) – had been out front all day, and four of them worked hard to try and make it to the finish line ahead of the peloton, and they almost did. But when the sprint trains opened up, they were swept up with only a few hundred metres remaining.
How it unfolded
With Steinhauser at only three and a half minutes down, the peloton didn’t want to give the break a huge gap, and held them at around two minutes after the first 60km of racing. Gamper won the first sprint at Masfut, and things remained stable for the next while, with the gap just starting to come down as they started the final 60km.
In the peloton, it was Lidl-Trek who were setting the pace alongside race leaders Bahrain, working in support of Jonathan Milan. Despite their efforts, the gap didn’t reduce particularly quickly, and still sat at just over two minutes with 35km to go.
With 30km to go, more and more teams started to get involved with the chase and battle for position, including Uno-X Mobility and Ineos Grenadiers, and up front James Knox was the first rider to drop out of the breakaway, leaving four riders who were trying to hold on to the end.
A crash in the bunch saw Fabio Jakobsen (Picnic PostNL), Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep), Daan Hoole and Robbe Ghys (both Decathlon CMA CGM) all hit the tarmac quite…
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