Sam Bennett wins his second sprint Stage at the UAE Tour
Perfect leadout for Bennett sees him comfortably win ahead of Viviani and Ackermann who had to sprint early
After the GC at this year’s UAE Tour was decided yesterday, today’s stage was another chance for the sprinters in the peloton.
The 165 flat kilometers took the riders from Deira Island to Palm Jumeirah and a 6-men break went up the road early; Tony Gallopin (AG2R Citroën), Alexey Lutsenko, Luis León Sánchez (Astana-Premier Tech), Matthieu Ladagnous, Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ), Iñigo Elosegui (Movistar).
But the bunch was always well in control of the situation and with 30 km to go the break was caught. Another solo attack was launched, but in the last 10 km it was all set for a bunch sprint.
Winning two days ago, the Sam Bennet took full advantage of his lead-out man Michael Mørkøv, and he put daylight between himself and his rivals in the final 150 metres.
Elia Viviani (Cofidis), who lost his lead-out man Fabio Sabatini to a crash, finished second, with Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) third after a long sprint. Pascal Ackermann found himself boxed in on the final 200 m and had to launch his sprint late.
Overall leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the peloton to retain the red jersey with one spinters stage remaining and look's likely to take overall victory in this years race.
VIDEO: 2021 UAE Tour Stage 6 Sprint Finish
2021 UAE Tour Stage 6 Top 10
1 Sam Bennett (Irl) Deceuninck-QuickStep 03:32:23
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cofidis
3 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 David Dekker (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
5 Fernando Gaviria (Col) UAE Team Emirates
6 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Qhubeka-Assos
7 Kaden Groves (Aus) Team BikeExchange
8 Andre Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation
9 Cees Bol (Ned) Team DSM
10 Michael Morkov (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep
2021 UAE Tour GC after Stage 6
1 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 20:41:49
2 Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 00:00:45
3 Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:01:12
4 Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma 00:01:54
5 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo 00:01:56
6 Mattias Jensen (Den) Trek-Segafredo 00:02:47
7 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious 00:02:49
8 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:04:03
9 Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Cofidis 00:04:23
10 Fausto Masnada (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:06:40