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Sam Bennett has taken his first win of the year, at the first time of asking, on stage 4 of the UAE Tour.
The Deceuninck-QuickStep rider was best in the sprint to the line at the end of the 204km pan flat stage into Al Marjan Island.
He took what looked like a comfortable win just ahead of David Decker (Jumbo Visma) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal).
While Lotto Soudal and the Bora-hansgrohe team of Pacal Ackermann swarmed at the front in a bid to take control, Bennett took the wheel of his lead out man Michael Mørkøv.
Once Mørkøv brought Bennett towards the front of the bunch deep inside the final kilometre, Bennett took it from there and finished well ahead of his rivals, who were closely packed in the fight for 2nd and 3rd.
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Decker, who was also 2nd on the opening stage, put in a very good ride and almost tangled with Bennett in the sprint, though both got a clear run at the line and took the top two placings.
It was Bennett's first crack at a bunch sprint this year as he is making his season debut at UAE Tour, where the opening stage split to pieces in the crosswinds, stage 2 was a TT and yesterday's stage 3 featured a summit finish.
As the race ended in a sprint finish there was no change to the overall; Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) still at the top of the general classification by 43 seconds from Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) with João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 1:03.
The riders have a summit finish tomorrow on stage 5 on Jebel Jais before the final two stages, which may both end in bunch sprints once the crosswinds don't split the race.
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