Czech teenager Vacek celebrates first World Tour win by taking stage six of UAE Tour

Mathias Vacek celebrated his first World Tour success by taking the penultimate stage six of the UAE Tour on Friday.

The teenage Czech rider of Gazprom-RusVelo crossed the finishing line from the breakaway group ahead of Paul Lapeira of AG2R Citroen and teammate Dmitry Strakhov as the peloton failed to time catching the attackers up the road over the 180-kilometre flat stage start and finish at Dubai Expo.

Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Fenix, the winner of stages one and five, continued his excellent form finish in sixth place, but it was not the position he had hoped for at the beginning of the day.

“I still can't believe I've won,” Vacek said soon after his victory. “It's amazing, I'm still really young at 19 years old, so this victory means so much to me.

“I thought I'd try to go in the breakaway today and help Dmitry [Strakhov] to keep the black jersey. At 10 kilometres before the finish, I knew we had a one minute and 15 seconds advantage, so then I was fully focused on the sprint.”

Vacek has become the youngest winner of stage UAE Tour. It’s also the first time a stage winner emerged from the breakaway group in the history of this race as well as the previous Dubai and Abu Dhabi Tours.

“I'm feeling a lot of emotions after this win,” Vacek said. “It’s hard to believe it, I’m really happy. The best moment was when, with 10km to go, we realised that we had one and a half minutes [from the peloton], so we could go for the win.

“Everybody in the breakaway pushed very hard. I didn’t even speak with my two teammates, it was just all out.

“I know that I have quite a strong sprint. I’m one of the lead-out guys for Matteo Malucelli. I still need a bit of time to know what kind of rider I can become, but this win might change