Jay Vine has compared the penultimate day of his bid to win a major WorldTour race in the Middle East to a leisurely, sight-seeing ride to work in his native Australia.
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But the Townsville-born rider, whose rise from being a turbo trainer warrior in his living room to Grand Tour stage winner has been one of cycling's great recent success stories, knows it's just the calm before a final-day storm at the UAE Tour.
The race leader was just trying to keep out of trouble on Saturday's sprint stage with his thoughts already turning to a potential duel for the title with his fellow Aussie Ben O'Connor on Sunday's (Monday AEDT) final mountain stage.
"I didn't see any dangerous point today really. It reminded me of not so long ago when I was commuting by bike to go to work in Australia," smiled Vine, who did keep safe as Belgian sprinter Tim Merlier powered to his third stage victory with another scintillating turn of speed.
"You got that feeling of riding through red lights. It was very cool to have a look at the buildings and stuff. Today was not super hard, but it's going to be a big day tomorrow."
His main concern was ensuring he was properly fuelled in his bid to protect his slender 11-second lead over Perth's in-form Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider O'Connor.
It's not just between the two Aussies, but the powerful home UAE Team Emirates outfit will be working for Vine, with his American teammate Brandon McNulty in third place in the GC at just 13 seconds down, as they hit the slopes of Jabel Hafet on the border of Oman and UAE.
"I'll have to consume about 4000 calories, maybe a bit more, so I had to do fuelling today for tomorrow, on the bike, after race and this evening, just to keep my stomach okay," said Vine.
"I don't know if we'll have to set a defensive tempo tomorrow. Looking at this stage in previous years, it's really up to people who have to make up time that have to make the race hard, so I expect Decathlon AG2R and Soudal Quick-Step (with Belgian Ilan van Wilder 21 seconds down) to speed up from the lower slopes.
"It's also probably going to be the hottest day of the week tomorrow. It'll be about responding, not losing time. As long as I keep McNulty's wheel in front of mine, it should be fine".
Meanwhile, the two brilliant Australian speedsters, Kaden Groves and Sam Welsford, couldn't dent Merlier's supremacy amid a loaded sprint field as he completed his hat-trick of wins in the sixth stage at the end of a flat 138km trek in Abu Dhabi.
The Belgian points jersey leader again proved far too strong for the field on Saturday, with Groves only able to finish 14th for Alpecin-Deceuninck and Welsford 19th for BORA-hansgrohe.
Australian Associated Press
