Caleb Ewan celebrated his first win in the colours of Lotto Soudal by taking Stage 4 of the UAE Tour atop Hatta Dam.
With previous stage winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) frantically trying to regain touch with the front following a multi-rider crash inside the final seven kilometres, Ewan pounced to profit from the Spaniard’s malaise.
Ewan powered to victory, taking the stage four win ahead of Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) and overall leader Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).
“I thought I would win more of a typical bunch sprint to start with, but I knew coming into the stage, with all the fast sprinter here, that this might be my best opportunity to take a stage win because of the uphill finish,” Ewan said of his first win with Lotto Soudal.
“My team did well to protect me all day. It was a pretty tough stage even before the final climb. I was right where I needed to be on that last right-hand turn, and I still felt good coming up the climb. I started my sprint when I needed to, and luckily I held on.
“I watched the video of previous years a few times. In the videos, you don’t really see how steep it is. When I started sprinting I could really feel it – had to click down a few gears to keep on top of it, but I felt good and could really keep the power until the end.”
You can rewatch Stage 4 from UAE Tour HERE.
UAE Tour 2019 – stage 4 results (Palm Jumeirah – Hatta Dam):
| 1 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | 4:27:07 |
| 2 | Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) | +02” |
| 3 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 4 | Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale) | +05” |
| 5 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 6 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 7 | Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 8 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | ,, |
| 9 | Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 10 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
UAE Tour 2019 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | 14:05:10 |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +21” |
| 3 | David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) | +38” |
| 4 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +46” |
| 5 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +54” |
| 6 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +01’01” |
| 7 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +01’04” |
| 8 | Victor De La Parte (CCC) | +01’12” |
| 9 | James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +01’14” |
| 10 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’15” |
