One of the most fascinating aspects of covering a race like the UAE Tour is the proximity to the riders. In most European races, the riders are able to analyze their performance, good or bad, in the sanctuary of the team bus, but in the UAE Tour, there are no team buses with blacked-out windows, only ageing minivans with plastic chairs strewn across the parking lot forecourt! . Imagine a specific glamping with work colleagues. It's even worse.

When something goes well, as when Jumbo Visma set up Dylan Groenewegen for victory on stage 4, you can see the joy and celebration as the riders and staff enjoy the moment of success. But when things go wrong, as they did for Sam Bennett and his Detunink Quickstep team, the atmosphere is quite different.

In fact, the riders were even barred from the press after Bennett's confusing sprint dropped him back to fourth place. Bennett's comments were later provided by the team, but it was far more illuminating to watch from afar as Bennett and his lead group analyzed their own performance. It is not clear what was said among the players, but they knew they were in public.

Bennett then praised the team for chasing the main break of the day for most of the stage, explaining that they had changed their lead-out for the tricky Dubai finale.

"The team ran really well and ran to control the break from the beginning. We had a really good run in the final. I put Michal Morkov in front of Shane [Arbold] and we tried to see what would happen. No particular reason, I just wanted to see."

"I think sometimes it's better to switch around so you get the other person's point of view, understand each other, and it flows better. We tried different things, but today it was very difficult to steer each other. It was very tricky. The entry into the last corner went very well."

Bennett jumped first in the sprint and looked fast when he got out of the saddle and accelerated, but he didn't have the legs to finish the job. Groenewegen and the rest of the field pounced, and the Irish road champion missed out on the prize.

"I accelerated out and saw an opening and jumped on some guys. I was a bit quicker when I got out in front but I didn't have the legs. When I kicked, I was fast, but then I died right after that. I didn't have the legs today. I had bad legs today. If I had better legs it would have been different, but I didn't have the power today.

Bennett has two more stages in this year's race and must decide when to lead out and sprint before it is too late. Given the speed of his legs, that goal is certainly attainable, and if it comes to fruition, the atmosphere in the Team Van will certainly change.