Up-and-coming Visma/Lease a Bike sprinter Olav Kooij edged out Tim Merlier in a photo finish after a high speed finale on stage five of the UAE Tour on Friday.

Merlier had already won two sprint stages on the Tour but suffered a late flat tyre as the 22-year-old Dutch sprinter Kooij added to his growing reputation.

"It’s never easy to get it right," said Kooij. "I came out of the last roundabout quite well. 

"When Mark [Cavdendish] launched the sprint, I was hoping to find a little gap and I did. On the line I didn’t know because Tim [Merlier] was very close and on the other side of the road. I had to wait a bit to know. 

"I’ve made good base to my condition in the winter. I didn’t get any sickness or injury. I had a win at Clasica de Almeria to come here in the UAE with confidence. This is the team where I started in the development team. I feel very comfortable here. The performance level of this team is very high. 

"In races like this, we come with the team committed to sprints and we’ll do it at the Giro d’Italia also this year."

British veteran Mark Cavendish went for broke early but appeared to give up as Kooij sped past him to take the honours after the 182km run from Al Aqah to Al Quwain.

In the overall standings Jay Vine of Team UAE leads his Australian compatriot Ben O'Connor of AG2R by 11sec with Spain's climb specialist Pello Bilbao lurking in fifth at 22sec.