Juan Sebastian Molano won a thrilling sprint to the finish to land stage four of the UAE Tour in Dubai on Thursday for UAE Team Emirates’ first stage success this year.
The Colombian beat Jumbo Visma’s Olav Kooij and Sam Welsford of Team DSM in the 174-kilometre Dubai stage from Al Shindagha to the Dubai Harbour.
“This is a good victory for me and a good victory for the team, and I am very happy for everyone involved,” Molano said soon after the finish.
“This race is a great opportunity for me to show what I can do and I am happy I got my stage win today. I'm very happy for the team, for this country, for the whole people.”
Five Dutch riders from various teams filled the top seven spots, with stage one victor Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) finishing ninth.
Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) couldn’t move into a position to compete for the podium, while Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) had to brake to avoid crashing in the bunch sprint to the finishing line.
Molano recorded his 20th victory as pro rider. For UAE Team Emirates it was their 10th success in 2023.
“I took my last victory in a prestigious stage such as the last one of the Vuelta, now it’s great to have added this new success in another big race. I’m really delighted with it,” Molano added.
The general classification scenario remained unchanged with Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step retaining his lead from Ineos Grenadiers’ Lucas Plapp and Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious.
Briton Adam Yates of UAE Team Emirates is a minute and 12 seconds down in 10th place.
“We tried to win with Tim, but it's quite clear now I'm in the leader's jersey that I'm not going to take risks in the lead-out. I was taking care of myself,” Evenepoel said ahead of the two remaining sprint stages and the final mountain climb to Jebel Hafeet.
Stage five is a 170km flat route from Al Marjan Island to Umm Al Quwain.
