UAE Tour: Mathias Vacek wins from surprise breakaway

Gazprom - Rusvelo have put three riders in the breakaway today and after a week of agressive racing and constantly placing riders in the head of the race at the UAE Tour. They front of the race discussed the stage win today with Czech Mathias Vacek taking the stage win from a sprint in the front group.

For the fourth day, as expected, the duo of Dmitry Strakhov and Pavel Kochetkov (Gazprom - Rusvelo) went into the break of the day alongside Mathias Vacek, on this day bigger than the normal as they were joined by Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè's Alessandro Tonelli and Johnatan Canaveral and AG2R Citroën Team's Paul Lapeira. The group's lead reached the five minute mark early on, however towards the end the peloton struggled to shorten the gap, that was never closed.

With Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team and Alpecin - Fenix controlling the stage there was rarely ever any worry regarding the breakaway's chances, however as the peloton got closer and closer to the finish the gap was not falling fast enough, with 1:20 minutes with 25 kilometers to go, and the gap staying the same until 10 kilometers to go.

As Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers placed riders in front, there was never actually sense of urgency in the peloton, with the lack of leadout fight which has been constant these last few stages. The peloton completely misunderstood the situation that was unfolding, and was left to fight for lower placing.

Gazprom worked in front with their numbers and left two options for the sprint, 19-year old Mathias Vacek was the fastest from the front group to take a career-marking victory in the race, beating Paul Lapeira and teammate Dmitry Strakhov in the final sprint, with the peloton coming in 15 seconds behind led by Jasper Philipsen.