Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) continued his rich run of winning form by notching up his third victory of the UAE Tour on stage 6 to Abu Dhabi.
The Belgian’s well-timed effort saw him beat Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) to the line in another frantic bunch sprint.
The race boasts one of the deepest sprint fields of the year, but Merlier’s dominance this week has brooked no argument, as he claimed a hat-trick of victories and a second place from the event’s four flat finales.
Saturday’s short stage around Abu Dhabi was always likely to produce a bunch sprint, and the wide roads on the run-in made for yet another disorderly finale, but Merlier navigated the chaos with calm before unleashing a crisp sprint to take the spoils.
Dylan Groenewegen’s Jayco-Alula squad had led the peloton beneath the flamme rouge, but it was again difficult for any one team to control affairs from the front. Merlier was initially content to bide his time in fifth wheel as Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) hit out from distance, but on the cusp of the gentle final bend, he realised he could wait no longer.
With a shade over 200m remaining, Merlier opened his effort, and he had the speed to sweep to another victory, while De Kleijn came through to take second place.
Merlier has now won five races this season, and he will approach races like Brugge-De Panne and even Gent-Wevelgem with considerable confidence. For the third year running, however, he is set to miss out on Tour de France participation, with Soudal-QuickStep set to build their team around the general classification aspirations of debutant Remco Evenepoel.
Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), a man who is certainly building towards July, was a non-starter after reporting a fever before the stage. The Manxman came to the start with his Astana-Qazaqstan squad but ultimately opted against racing as a precaution.
The stage was animated by a five-man move featuring Jonas Rickaert, Henri Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Eddy Finé (Cofidis), Marco Murgano (Corratec-Vini Fantini) and Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek), though the quintet must have known they were never going to upset the sprinters on this kind of terrain.
López, who lies inside the top 20 overall, was briefly the virtual race leader and he picked up six bonus seconds along the way to bolster his prospects of moving up the standings before the finish in Sunday.
Overall leader Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the…
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