Jonathan Milan flashed his undoubted sprint credentials by blasting past his rivals to win Stage 4 of the UAE Tour in Fujairah on Thursday.
The Italian Lidl-Trek rider was favourite to take the opening stage sprint chase on Monday only to crash 1,500 metres from the end with UAE Team Emirates' Isaac del Toro going on to seal a surprise victory in Abu Dhabi.
But there was no collision this time as Milan timed his run to perfection to beat Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling) to the line for his third win of 2026, while his younger brother Matteo Milan (Groupama-FDJ United) came home third.
Stage 3 winner Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) finished safely in the bunch to keep hold of the leader's red jersey, with the Italian maintaining his 21-second advantage over Mexico's Del Toro in the general classification. Colombian rider Harold Tejada (XDS Astana Team) is third, one minute shy of Tiberi.
After Remco Evenepoel's disastrous finish on Wednesday's climb up Jebel Mobrah, that saw the Stage 2 time-trial winner and overnight leader lose the red jersey, the Belgian double Olympic champion produced a conservative display that leaves him one minute and 44 seconds behind Tiberi with the Jebel Hafeet climb still to come.
It looked like a breakaway group of Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Stefan de Bod (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Patrick Gamper (Jayco AlUla) and James Knox (Picnic PostNL) might not be caught after spending much of the route out in front.
But Knox was dropped in the final hour and the remaining four were caught with 300 metres remaining. When asked if he had doubts whether the peloton would catch the break, Milan admitted: “I have to say the truth: yes. We knew that this breakaway was really strong, we were always keeping them at two, three minutes during the race.
“I have to say that my guys were really strong to keep them under control, they did really big work, I have to thank them as always.
“We just [caught] them after one kilometre to go, and then I was a bit more relaxed, but in a sprint you're never so relaxed. We knew that it would be a bit stressful in the last kilometres because there was this big straight and there's always a bit of a washing machine [effect].
“It's tough to stay all together, but my team was there, they did a really fantastic job, always keeping me in the first position, and they delivered me in a good way, so I just had to sprint, and I'm really happy with my performance.”
On his brother Matteo's performance, Jonathan added: “I'm really happy also for him. I knew that he could do really good. Just after the finish line he told me 'Hey, I finished third,' so I'm even more happy.
“I'm glad that he didn't beat me today, but maybe one day he will be there. I'm happy for my victory and for his first top three in a World Tour race. That means a lot for him and for his team.”
Friday's Stage 5 is a 166km route around Dubai ending with an expected sprint finish at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University.
Friday's Stage 5 route
