After a group of five was allowed to get away, the teams with sprint ambitions quickly set their sights on the inevitable: the fourth bunch sprint of this week. Kooij was well surrounded by his teammates, but got boxed in towards the end. The fast 22-year-old rider from Numansdorp still tried to get to the front, but realized moments later that it was becoming difficult.

"To compete for the win at this level, everything has to come together," sports director Maarten Wynants admitted afterwards. "Yesterday that was the case. Today apparently a little less so. The guys were well together and protected Olav super. Unfortunately, Olav was somewhat trapped. There was no gap he could dive into. He tried, but soon realized that sprinting was not going to happen today. It's a shame, but with a stage win in our pocket we now look forward to tomorrow's stage."

The UAE Tour then reaches its climax on the flanks of Jebel Hafeet. Wynants knows the plan for tomorrow. "We hope to aim high there with Attila Valter and Bart Lemmen. They are the guys we will work for tomorrow. Attila was very good earlier this week on Jebel Jais. It's hard to say what to expect in advance, but we're aiming for another good ranking with Attila. We'll see how far we can get in the general classification," the Belgian concluded.