Primoz Roglic has put himself in a commanding position to be the winner of the inaugural UAE Tour after winning Stage 6 on Friday.
The Slovenian, who has held the leaders' red jersey since Sunday's opening stage, came home first ahead of Tom Dumoulin and David Gaudu in the finish at Jebel Jais.
He is now 31 seconds ahead of second-placed Alejandro Valverde with only Saturday's final stage in Dubai to go.
With the stage being flat on Saturday it will take something to go drastically wrong for Roglic not to prevail.
Of his success, Roglic said: "We showed again as a team how strong we are. I'm really happy that I managed to finish it off. It wasn't a direct fight with Valverde at the end.
"From the beginning of the stage, our guys protected me from the wind. On the last climb Laurens de Plus we pulled until 500 metres to go. It was impressive. Job's done for today; we have to stay focused for tomorrow.”
Dan Martin was fourth for UAE Team Emirates and he is seventh in the overall standings, 1 minute, 11 seconds behind Roglic.
Saturday's stage starts at Dubai Safari Park and is 145km in length with the finish at City Walk.
