Isaac del Toro seals UAE Tour victory as Milan completes hat-trick

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to his third win of the UAE Tour on stage 7 in Abu Dhabi, where Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished in the peloton to secure his overall victory.

On a stage run off at some 50.5kph, Milan again proved quicker than the rest in the bunch sprint, powering to the win ahead of Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility) and Sam Welsford (Ineos).

A determined delegation from Modern Adventure led out the sprint, but Milan was always well positioned and he surfed the wheels expertly, nudging onto Blikra’s lead-out and then unleashing a typically devastating sprint.

The pan-flat final stage to Abu Dhabi Breakwater was designed squarely for the sprinters, but in keeping with the tone of the week to date, there was no gentle preamble ahead of the main event here.

Callum Thornley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Daan Hoole (Decathlon CMA CGM), Ezra Caudell (Modern Adventure), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) and Aivaras Mikutis (Tudor) escaped on the opening kilometres and that quintet maintained a brisk pace of close to 50kph for their sortie off the front.

The risk of crosswinds never materialised, but that didn’t prevent the GC teams from keeping their riders near the front, which ensured a rapid pace in the peloton, and the escapees entered the final 20km with barely more than half a minute in hand on their pursuers. 

Derek Gee-West, who has made an assured debut in Lidl-Trek colours, sprang into action with some long turns on the front of the bunch in the finale to help tee up Milan.

Del Toro secured the first WorldTour stage win of his career after a week where his superiority brooked no real argument. He outgunned the sprinters with a rasping acceleration on stage 1 and though he lost the red jersey in the following day’s time trial, he also raced in less amenable wind conditions than his GC rivals.

The Mexican was perhaps a touch too cautious on the steepest sections of Jebel Mobrah on stage 3, allowing Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) to steal a march on him, but his second place there put him within touching distance of red.

Del Toro duly shook off Tiberi on the climb of Jebel Hafeet on stage 6, setting a new record time for the ascent as he moved definitively into the red jersey. He won the UAE Tour by 20 seconds from Tiberi, while Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) completed the podium in third place at 1:14.

Strade Bianche is the next race on Del Toro’s calendar, where he will link up with Tadej Pogačar for the first time in a season where the pair will race together at the Tour de France.