Today saw the riders take on the longest stage of the race, a pan flat 204 kilometre long test that started and finished at Al Marjan Island. With the long day ahead of them, the peloton set off at a steady pace, with no attacks in the opening 110 kilometres before a duo eventually forged on out front.
The team all tucked in within the peloton, conserving energy and looking to protect sprinter Cees Bol for the finish. Ahead, the breakaway duo built up an advantage of almost three minutes at one point but with 30 kilometres to go the race was all back together again.
Heading into the finale the team did well to move Bol up towards the front in the closing five kilometres, but on the hectic run in, the lead outs became messy. The team managed to regroup though, with Bol sat in third wheel as the peloton charged towards the line through the final few sweeping corners. Opening up his sprint, Bol launched at around 225 metres to go but unfortunately ran out of power in his legs before the line, eventually ending the day just outside the top ten for the team.
Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | BENNETT Sam | Deceuninck - Quick Step | 4:51:51 | 40 |
2 | DEKKER David | Team Jumbo-Visma | ,, | 15 |
3 | EWAN Caleb | Lotto Soudal | ,, | 6 |
15 | BOL Cees | Team DSM | ,, | - |
50 | STORK Florian | Team DSM | ,, | - |
62 | ARENSMAN Thymen | Team DSM | ,, | - |
64 | ARNDT Nikias | Team DSM | ,, | - |
89 | DONOVAN Mark | Team DSM | ,, | - |
94 | DAINESE Alberto | Team DSM | ,, | - |
118 | KRAGH ANDERSEN Asbjørn | Team DSM | 0:27 | - |