UAE Tour 2025 Stage 6

February 22, 2025 It's just about as flat as a route organizer can manage for a 167KM race. The route is one big loop around Abu Dhabi with countless changes of direction which should limit any effects of wind. Kristian Sbaragli, Đorđe Đurić, and Carlos Samudio of Solution Tech-Vini Fantini continued their crusade against Manuele Tarozzi of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè for the Intermediate Sprints. They only got about 2 minutes 30 seconds as a maximum advantage all day with this being the final chance for the sprinters to get something out of this week. Đurić won the first Intermediate Sprint with Samudio and Tarozzi behind. The peloton got a whiff of crosswind with 73KM to go and just 5KM later, the gap was just 30 seconds. The bunch settled down and the gap was allowed to grow another minute. The next Intermediate Sprint came with 23KM to go and it was a mirror result of the first. Đurić took maximum points with Samudio in second and Tarozzi in third. Lead outs started to spread across the road with 10KM to go and the break was finally pulled back 2.5KM from the line. There were four lanes of the road to play with so a few teams were sitting back and staying sheltered from the headwind. A few sweeping turns inside the last kilometer strung out the bunch and broke up the sprint trains. Under 1KM to go, no team really had any control and riders were bouncing off of each in the middle of the group as the speed came slightly down. Jayco AlUla picked it back up with 850M to go. When they pulled off Alpecin-Deceuninck and Tudor Pro Cycling had hit front. With 275M to go, Jasper Philipsen was in good position on the left corner but Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep took a long sprint from behind and got a run on everyone else. By the time Philipsen could move, Merlier was well clear to take his second win of the week. Philipsen held off a charging Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek to keep second on the stage.