Tadej Pogacar breakaway, 2 mass crashes and a victory for Tim Merlier at UAE Tour stage 5

Stage 5 of the UAE Tour delivered a lot of action with an unusual Tadej Pogacar breakaway on a pan-flat day, but the sprinters ended up fighting for glory on the day and it was none other than Tim Merlier who won in a finale that has seen a lot of drama.

The stage started out just about as crazy as one could expect, as after a breakaway of seven riders formed itself featuring Intermarché's Kobe Goossens, two riders from the Bardiani team and a whole four from the Vini Fantini team. It was a wild group of riders and they were joined by four more including none other than race leader Tadej Pogacar who set himself up for mission impossible. Pogacar, teammate Domen Novak, defending champion Lennert van Eetvelt and INEOS' Victor Langellotti attacked from the peloton and bridged across to the breakaway, forming a group of 11 riders.

It was an amusing move which lit up the action on the day, but the peloton chased hard right from the gun and never allowed the gap to grow over two minutes. In total, both Pogacar and van Eetvelt collected three seconds in bonifications over the two intermediate sprints, but the pan-flat profile and many teams commiting to a chase meant that the effort wouldn't be rewarding the attackers further.

The breakaway was then actually caught with a whole 39 kilometers to go. Racing calmed down then, but the peloton accelerated once again towards the final and a crash just outside the final 3 kilometers proved to be a disaster for some as the likes of Pablo Castrillo, Felix Gall, Carlos Rodríguez and Paul Seixas hit the deck at high speed and have lost time as a consequence.

Another crash happened in the final corner at high speed, taking out even more men from contention. Luka Mezgec launched an early sprint and actually threatened the fast men... Lidl-Trek managed to get a perfect leadout for Jonathan Milan but this time around Tim Merlier managed to time his move perfectly, and the European Champion took the triumph he had been looking for. Milan was third as Astana sprinter Matteo Malucelli sprinted to second on the day. Merlier himself also crashed after the finish line.