Thursday’s stage 4 was a 174-kilometer ride from Al Shindagha to Dubai Harbor. The route had the greatest appeal to sprinters in the peloton who were eager to prove their explosive power on the flat roads following yesterday’s mountain stage.

The peloton started the stage in the historic Al Shindagha district, and it did not take long for the action to begin. AG2R-Citroen’s Alex Baudin formed a breakaway group together with a duo from Team Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane featuring Samuele Zoccarato and Alessandro Tonelli.

The breakaway hopefuls charged on at the front like rabbits on a treadmill until their eventual capture by the main peloton with three kilometers to go. Once the trio had been caught, the sprinter teams increased the pace, fought for positions, and focused on forming their sprint trains.

The stage was won by Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) in a close battle across the finish line. Molano crossed the finish line in 03:50:01 and was followed by Olav Kooij (Team Jumbo-Visma) and Sam Welsford of Team DSM.

"We have to enjoy this victory as much as we can because the UAE Tour is a very important race for our team, and for our sponsors,” stage winner Moreno explained to Roadcycling.com after being celebrated on the podium. “I’m very happy to have won this stage for all of them and I dedicate this win to the whole of the UAE. We haven’t had the start of the race as we wanted, but we are improving day by day and Adam Yates is in a great shape. I’m sure he’ll finish this race on a high,” Molano added.

UAE Tour leader Evenepoel said he was content with the day’s racing and had managed to relax and recover from yesterday’s action. “It was quite an easy day for me today as the wind wasn’t as strong as on Stage 1 and the roads were big. We cruised along at high speed so I got a lot of slipstream. Even in the last few kilometres, I felt pretty relaxed and recovered. I was following Tim Merlier’s wheel until two kilometers to go and then I just wanted to stay out of trouble. It’s pretty special to lead a race like the UAE Tour and I'm enjoying being in the Red Jersey."

Following today’s stage, Team Soudal-QuickStep’s World Champion Remco Evenepoel remains overall race leader seven seconds ahead of Luke Plapp (Ineos-Grenadiers) and 11 seconds ahead of Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious).

Stage 5 of the 2023 UAE Tour is a 170-kilometer flat stage from Al Marjan Island to Umm al Quwain. Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for UAE Tour news and coverage.