Sam Bennett attacked the finale of stage 2 at the UAE Tour up Hatta Dam but had to be content with 2nd place behind Caleb Ewan.
The Irish cyclist opened proceedings by attacking on the incline to the line with about 200 metres to go.
He opened a gap on the others at the front of the reducing peloton but Ewan immediately went after him and reeled him in.
Just has Ewan pulled level with Bennett, the Irish rider began to tie up; his effort not helped but almost clipping the crowd control barriers to his left.
While he stayed upright, Bennett was forced to freewheel for a second while he corrected his line. He was already tiring at that point as Ewan continued to power forward to win.
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Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) won the same stage last year and after finishing 2nd yesterday he now leads the race overall.
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Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) rode a very strong finale but Ewan tackled the climb perfectly and had the legs to keep it going all the way to the line.
Ewan won by two seconds from Bennett with Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) in 3rd place a further two seconds back and on the same time as a large group of riders.
Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) was in that group; an important result for him as he maintains his general classification hopes ahead of the real climbing to come tomorrow.
Dunbar is Team Ineos leader at UAE Tour and having ridden well already at Tour de La Provence this season he is fancied for the climbs to come.
Chris Froome is also in the Team Ineos line-up this week but in his first race since his crash last June he was dropped today even before the final short sharp climb up Hatta Dam began.
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