Kristian Sbaragli put in a herculean stint in the breakaway on stage 6 of the UAE Tour, joining two of his Solution Tech-Vini Fantini teammates in the move and providing textbook lead-outs at the day's two intermediate sprints.
The Italian veteran was the key man for his team as they sought to extend Đorđe Đurić's black sprints jersey lead, and he almost single-handedly kept the breakaway in the clear, making him our UAE Tour rider of the day.
Stage 6 of the UAE Tour was another pan-flat stage, a third in a row, taking in 165km of urban sprawl between Abu Dhabi Cycling Club and Abu Dhabi Breakwater. Unlike the past two sprint stages, which were both livened up by race leader Tadej Pogačar attacking at will, this was a welcome return to normal for the sprint teams, who were firmly in control all day.
The peloton kept the breakaway – the Vini Fantini trio of Sbaragli, Đurić, and Carlos Samudio, plus Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) – on a very tight leash.
It was a fifth day in the breakaway this week for Tarozzi and Samudio, and a fourth day in a row for them and Đurić, with the trio continuing the tightly-fought battle for the intermediate sprints jersey – one of the most entertaining subplots of this week’s action.
As ever, there was a frantic squabble for the intermediate points, with the Vini Fantini trio ganging up on Tarozzi at the Yas Marina Circuit. The manoeuvre meant Đurić extended his lead over Tarozzi to 10 points, with the Serb and Samudio taking eight and five points to his three.
All four riders had been in the breakaway on stage 5 and had rattled along at record-breaking speed – it was the fastest-ever stage of the UAE Tour, at 48.752kph. Up until the start of stage 6, Djuric had spent 447km up the road, with Tarozzi not far behind on 435km and Samudio just a fraction more rested, having spent 427km on the attack.
Sbaragli had spent 112km up the road yesterday, and he put his enormous engine to use again today. The Italian was the driving force of the breakaway, doing huge turns on the front to shield his teammates, and teed up their two-pronged attack on the first intermediate sprint before pulling away to pick up the last remaining point.
The 34-year-old did the lion’s share of the work as they approached the second intermediate sprint at Qasr Al Hosn, and worked tirelessly to pile the pressure on Tarozzi, the outnumbered Bardiani rider. The gap to the breakaway had been down to as little as 20 seconds but he nearly single-handedly dragged it back out to a minute by the 40km mark.
The quartet stayed clear to contest the second intermediate, with Sbaragli acting as the lead-out man. Đurić and Samudio got the jump on Tarozzi and were first and second over the line, with Samudio drawing level with Tarozzi in the classification, and Đurić even leapfrogged Pogačar in the overall points jersey standings too.
Đurić now leads the sprints jersey by an insurmountable 15 points from Tarozzi and Samudio heading into the final stage on Sunday.
Even with the GC teams assembling on the front of the peloton, the break gave them a late scare. The last survivors, Tarozzi and Samudio, were only absorbed with 2.5km to go before Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) took the stage honours at Abu Dhabi Breakwater.
Although Sbaragli finished stage 6 with nothing personally to show for his efforts, his powerhouse performance for his teammates makes him a worthy winner of our UAE Tour Rider of the Day.
