Expo 2020 Dubai > Expo 2020 Dubai 179.8km

The final sprint stage, it looks like another messy one. Nothing much to say about the route, this is all about the finish.

Weather

Another sunny day. There is some wind around, but it shouldn’t cause any echelons.

Finale

Just a couple of gentle corners in the final 5km, it’s another finish that’s hard to get right.

Contenders

Jasper Philipsen – today was another example of just how good Alpecin-Fenix are. In the final 10km, they didn’t lead the peloton, not until Philipsen burst to the front with 100m to go. It’s a perfect example of how to “cheat” a win. Let the other teams do all the work, hang back, then get to the front in the final 2km. They were at the very back of the bunch with 5km remaining, then they made their move. Philipsen’s win was made even better by the fact Rickaert had a mechanical and couldn’t lead him out. By that point, Philipsen had the wheel of Bennett, and he did the rest himself. The Belgian starts as the favourite to win the stage.

Mark Cavendish – had a mechanical today and couldn’t sprint, but at least he was in the mix after his crash on Wednesday. This is another chance for QuickStep to do what they do, of course they’ll be up there.

Dylan Groenewegen – today was very disappointing by BikeExchange, their train lost contact with each other in the closing stages and despite a late surge, they were nowhere. After a tough week, the team could really do with a good performance. That’s three consecutive sprints where the team have failed to get Groenewegen into a good position to launch his sprint. Will they learn from their mistakes?

Sam Bennett – Bora have done a great job this week, I’ve been very impressed by their new train. Sam came into the week a little behind where he’d normally be at this time of year, but his form seems to be growing. Today he launched from the front, but just didn’t have the power to finish off the job. If he gets put into another good position, I think he can take the win.

Olav Kooij – second place today was a great result; we even saw Tom Dumoulin involved in the sprint train. He has the speed to win, it doesn’t matter about his age.

Prediction Time

I’ve liked what I’ve seen this week from Alpecin-Fenix and Bora – hansgrohe, both sprint trains are operating well. I said at the start of the week that a certain sprinter will improve as the race goes on, I’ll take a win for Sam Bennett.