Two-for-two for Tim Merlier at UAE Tour; Belgian outsprints Arvid de Kleijn and Olav Kooij

A second victory in the second bunch sprint of the race. Tim Merlier is thriving at the UAE Tour and has become the winner of stage 4.

A day racing in the city of Dubai and around, it was not one where many riders hoped to be in the breakaway. As usual, Mark Stewart was present, this time around joined by pure climber Harm Vanhoucke of Lotto Dstny.

It was however never a move that had chances of succeeding. The peloton rode around calmly all day long. Stewart waited for the peloton with 80 kilometers to go after the intermediate sprints were passed, Vanhoucke equally waited for the peloton and was reeled in with 50 kilometers to go. Despite being a World Tour event, the route did not even convince the smaller teams to pursue TV exposure further.

The speed gradually began to rise into the final kilometers, a crash then disrupted some's plans with 3 kilometers to go. Alpecin-Deceuninck had a strong lead-out to the finish line but it was another chaotic finale. Tim Merlier jumped from the wheel of Olav Kooij in the final meters and took his second victory of the week. Arvid de Kleijn sprinted to second once again quite close to victory, whilst Kooij finished third. The peloton arrived in small groups behind, but there were no time losses due to the crash.

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