UAE Tour 2025 Stage 4

February 20, 2025 The way from Fujairah Qidfa Beach to Umm al Quwain is 181KM, traversing the peninsula from East to West. The climb to Masafi over the Eastern Range tops out at 435M above sea level but it is so early that it should not disrupt the sprinters from having their first pure crack at a bunch finish. The last roundabout comes 900M from the finish but the roads widen for a dead-straight finish with a slight headwind so getting the timing right will be crucial. Michael Leonard of Ineos went on the attack with Đorđe Đurić of Solution Tech-Vini Fantini and the pair got a maximum gap of 5 minutes. Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier of Lidl-Trek, Silvan Dillier of Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Ayco Bastiaens of Soudal Quickstep did the controlling in the peloton and kept the gap stable around 4 minutes 20 seconds. Through the Intermediate Sprint in Masafi with 134KM to go, Đurić and Leonard took the points but there was a solitary bonus second remaining for someone in the peloton to take. Movistar led things out but it was Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe who took the last second on offer. With the extra pace in the bunch, the gap came down under 3 minutes. With 60KM to go, the riders turned from a cross-head wind into a pure cross wind. Alpecin-Deceuninck put it in the gutter and the front echelon formed of about 20 riders. Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, UAE-XRG, and Bahrain Victorious were well represented at the front. Plenty of teams completely missed the move and they were quick to organize the chase. Leonard and Đurić were caught with 52KM to go as the front echelon pulled their gap out to over 20 seconds. It all came back together with 45KM to go though as the route turned into more of a head wind. Manuele Tarozzi of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè went on the attack with 41KM to go, 8KM out from the second Intermediate Sprint, but he was mobbed by the Solution Tech-Vini Fantini. Lorenzo Quartucci was on Tarozzi right away with Đurić and eventually Carlos Samudio joining the front. Quartucci attacked and Đurić followed. Tarozzi couldn't manage the 3-1 situation and he was resigned to drift back to the bunch with Samudio. A turn at 18KM to go into a cross-tail wind split the race again. Jayco AlUla were the first instigators, aided by UAE-XRG and Soudal Quickstep. Only about 30 riders made the front echelon and with 5KM to go, the race was still in pieces. The road swung into a head wind with 3KM to go which allowed the second group of about 60 riders to make it back on. By 1KM to go, many of the top sprinters had their teams lined up all together. Jayco AlUla took control with 800M to go at full lead out speed. Simone Consonni of Lidl-Trek came around the last Jayco AlUla rider and had Jonathan Milan on his wheel with Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck latched on as well. Milan started his sprint just under 200M from the line. Merlier couldn't match Milan's power but he had Philipsen boxed in. In the last 75M, Philipsen got himself free and came with the most momentum of any rider to the line but it wasn't enough. Milan won the sprint by the width of the rim to Merlier and roughly the same margin from Merlier to Philipsen in third.