If Lemko Evenpole (Sourdal-Quickstep) was stressed by the echelon that briefly flared up in the last few kilometers of stage 5 of the UAE Tour, he didn't let it get to him after that.

The UAE Tour leader chatted with journalists after his daily press conference, joking that he had surpassed teammate and in-house fastest rider Tim Merlier, albeit by a few intermediate time bonus seconds.

Evenepoel then rode a short but impressively intense last kilometer at a speed that stage winner Dylan Groenewegen described as "a washing machine," and he finished safely in a chaotic group sprint for the second consecutive race.

When the more tumultuous than expected stage 5 finale was over, Evenpoel had finished in 44th place, nine seconds ahead of his closest rival, Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers).

Commenting on the bonus-second battle around 40 km from the line, Evenpoel humorously explained. "When I went for the intermediate sprint, Tim was in front of me and I saw the red jersey right behind me, so he thought I was the Bahrain Victorias rider.

"But he wasn't, he knew it was me" - with Thomas de Gendt winning the solo breakaway, "I got a two second bonus."

"If he took two seconds and I took one, it would be ridiculous, and now I can brag that I beat Tim Mellier in the sprint," he joked.

A fast-moving pack of EF Education-EasyPost, Bahrain Victorious, Beulah Hansgrohe, and UAE Team Emirates opened a gap that they tried to maintain.

The leading group, including Evenpoel, was at one point nearly 30 seconds ahead of Plapp's chase group. But after about 8 km of hot pursuit, the group finally regrouped.

"I was up near the front, but there was a small split, and I was just able to rejoin it," Evenpoel said.

"There were a lot of corners today, and the last straight to the finish was all roundabouts, so I knew it was going to be a run. When there's a headwind it's always a bit of a rush because you get more speed from behind."

"So I saw some crazy moves in the pack, but personally I finished in one piece. So it's perfect."

After Thomas de Gendt told Belgian media that the relatively easy pace of the stages in Oman and the United Arab Emirates had, broadly speaking, reduced his power output, Evenpoel asked a more He also answered some analytical questions.

However, Evenpoel said that this was not the case for him and that he did not check his power output that much because he has bigger fish than de Gendt.

"We are here to win races, so we need to be fresh for Sunday and for Jebel Hafit.

"Thomas doesn't need to be fresh for Sunday. I know what he means, but for me the first three days were pretty hard at Echelon. So I pushed pretty hard to stay at the top."

"In a race like this, like stage 4, it can be really, really slow for a few days.

"But the only way to adapt is to eat a little less, treat some of these stages as recovery days, and use those days to build stages like Sunday. In any case, today [stage 5] was good training for him."