UAE Tour: Philipsen takes Stage Five after a blistering sprint from Kooij and Bennett

Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Fenix demolished his rivals in the final 100-metre dash to the finishing line for a convincing Stage Five victory in the UAE Tour on Thursday.

Olav Kooij of Jumbo-Visma pipped Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Bennett, who made the first move in the final sprint, to take second in the 182-kilometre stage from Ras Al Khaimah to Al Marjan Island.

The overall lead, however, was retained by UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar, extending his advantage over Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers to four seconds via an intermediate sprint.

Pogacar made a brave move to jump into an echelon attack with Alpecin-Fenix and several teammates after just 40km of the stage and then sprint to the line.

Adam Yates and Ineos Grenadiers missed the split and were forced to lead the chase until Pogacar and the rest eased-up after taking the time bonuses.

Pogacar endured a bit of a scare after a late puncture with seven kilometres remaining but the Slovenian recovered to join the peloton and hold on to his red jersey for a second successive day.

“We didn’t panic when I punctured, I believe in the guys and they brought me back safe to the bunch. It was a perfect team job,” the two-time Tour de France winner said.

“Alpecin were attacking during the whole stage and we managed to be present in every attack.

“We arrived to the bonus sprint with about 35 riders and I saw the opportunity to go for it. And to get a few bonus seconds but Jasper is just that bit faster!

“We had some echelons but here it's wide roads so you can move up a bit easier. But you still have to be careful.”

Philipsen followed up his Stage One win with a second of the tour, to take his overall WorldTour tally to eight.

“It was a really fast finish and we lined up really