ProTeam Lennert Van Eetvelt flies to stage and overall victory of the UAE Tour

Lennert Van Eetvelt wins his first WorldTour race, in the seventh and final stage of the UAE Tour. With that the young Belgian also takes home the overall victory, with only two seconds on Ben O'Connor, and the youth classification. 

The final stage of the UAE Tour finished on the Jebel Hafeet, a climb of 11 kilometers with an average of 6.7%. The breakaway of the day with four riders built up a lead of six minutes. Due to the strong wind, the bunch split into pieces multiple times, but towards the foot of the final climb the peloton came together again.

Emanuel Buchmann was the last man standing from the early breakaway, while in the bunch the pace was also high and the group became smaller. With five kilometers to go, Buchmann was still climbing alone in the front, but multiple attacks in the group of the favourites made the gap on Buchmann smaller. On 3 kilometers of the finish, the select group took back Buchmann. Lennert Van Eetvelt made a decisive move on 2 kilometers of the finish, riding solo towards the victory of the final stage and with that also taking the general and youth classification.

"Before the climb there were echelons and I got stuck in a second group. I had the feeling I lost the race there, but luckily we came back into the first group just before the Jebel Hafeet", Lennert Van Eetvelt explains. "I felt I had good legs on the climb and I really wanted to take out the maximum. I attacked with two kilometers to go, as I didn't want to have any regrets afterwards. I really couldn't believe it when I saw the gap was growing. Taking home the victory is unbelievable. After the finish I also heard I won the general classification with only two seconds, it's just fantastic."

Pictures: PhotoNews