Connor Swift continued a series of attacking front-foot performances at Ruta del Sol with third place on stage four.
The Brit made multiple attempts to get up the road early on and eventually battled his way into a group which swelled to 14 riders.
On the run into the finish the move would begin to fracture, with six riders ultimately contesting the stage win. Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma) made good his escape heading into the final kilometre, and with riders looking at each other behind, the Spaniard held on to take his first professional victory by nine seconds.
Swift was narrowly edged out by Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies) in the sprint, but his top-three continued the team’s momentum in Spain, following podium finishes for Brandon Rivera and Ben Turner in the previous two stages.
Filippo Ganna lit the after burners and unleashed an incredible sprint from deep in the pack to claim third place in Portugal.
Stage four at the Volta ao Algarve was controlled well by the peloton ahead of a bunch sprint into Faro. After lead-out work from Sam Watson, Ganna quickly accelerated through his rivals.
Coming up fractions short behind winner Milan Fretin (Cofidis) and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe), it was a seriously impressive turn of speed from the Italian.
Finishing safely in the pack, Laurens De Plus retained third place overall heading into Sunday's decisive time trial finale.
Josh Tarling remains second overall at the UAE Tour with just the queen stage remaining on Sunday.
The Brit made it safely through a sprint stage on Saturday, holding on to the white jersey and his GC position, 21 seconds back on leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).
Tim Merlier (Soudal – Quick-Step) made it back to back stage wins in Abu Dhabi, with the final run-in seeing a check-up in the bunch which led to a crash for Carlos Rodriguez.
The race culminates with the famous Jebel Hafeet summit finish which will ultimately decide the overall classification.