The fifth stage of UAE Tour and second of the queen stages started from the stadium of 2018 Asian Champions League football club – Al Ain.

The 162km route was flat for the most part in the desert. The windy conditions also made the peloton quicker as some teams were hoping to break the group up. The breakaway of five riders had over a six-minute advantage causing the peloton to work hard to bring them back.

The last 11km was the same as stage three, two days ago. So it was another chance for Wout to test himself against his rivals. It was the same four riders in stage three who managed to finish in the top four again. However, this time it was Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) who clinched the top spot.

Despite our Poels not making it into the top group, he is already seeing improvements in his form coming 15th and a minute behind the winner: ”It was quite a hard stage again, but it went a little bit better than last time. I’m happy about that and happy about the improvement. It was still a hard day with a lot of wind. The team was really good, they kept me out of the wind exposure the whole day, out of the problems, so yes, the team worked really well.”

Eros Capecchi came 32nd on the stage: “Personally the race was quite good, but still not great. I improve day by day, and I’m happy. As for the team, it was better than 2 days ago, and we are looking forward to the next two days where we’ll support one of the strongest sprinters in the world.”

From Al Ain we go to Abu Dhabi for the last two stages of UAE Tour, both sprinter’s stages.

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