Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 3 Report

A rude interruption for the sprinters today at the Abu Dhabi Tour - unlike the first couple
of days, Stage 3 would see the climbers come to the fore.
Jebel Hafeet was the destination - a 10.8km climb that averages 6.6%, although as we can
see, there are long stretches that reach closer to 8 or 9.
Plenty of riders going for the leader’s red jersey today later on, but in the meantime
a small break went up the road a short while after the flag dropped.
They were Simone Andreetta of Bardiani-CSF, Pavel Brutt of Gazprom-Rusvelo,
Alan Marangoni of Nippo-Vini Fantini and Stephen Clancy of Novo-Nordisk.
Their lead would fluctuate throughout the day, with stormy conditions in Abu Dhabi causing
a few problems out on course.
Kazushige Kuboki and Alexey Vermeulen hit the deck on the windy desert roads.
It wasn’t long after that the riders agreed to a temporary neutralisation to get through
the worst of the weather.
Things cleared up a bit as we came back into the more sheltered confines of Al Ain, which
was where the race sparked into action.
Even the 2 intermediate sprints of the day had been squeezed into the last 25km of this
186km long stage.
The first of those at KM160 was taken by Simone Andreeta.
However, the pace of the peloton ensured that our quartet would not make it to the 2nd sprint
point just 12km later.
Marcel Kittel emerged from the bunch to grab a handful of points just ahead of Mark Cavendish
- these could be of some importance in the green jersey competition by the end of the race.
The main action of the day however, would inevitably come on the slopes of Jebel Hafeet.
In fact it was race leader Cavendish who would be the first to detach from the main group,
certainly not a day for his sprinting talents.
The gradient began to make a selection of some of the best climbers in the race, and
it wasn’t long before the serious attacks began.
Rui Costa broke free with the first attack, with Ilnur Zakarin bridging across soon after
to create a formidable duo out front.
Big guns like Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana were happy to play the waiting game, but it
soon became clear that Zakarin and Costa would not fade towards the line - not even Sunweb’s
Tom Dumoulin could change that.
Costa, the 2013 Road World Champion, was able to better the Russian in a two-up sprint to
take a landmark victory for him and his new squad UAE Team Emirates.
Dumoulin fought hard to finish 3rd at 10” back.
Here’s the top 10 on the stage - Bauke Mollema put in a gutsy display to finish 4th.
Quintana, Contador and Nibali all finished around a minute behind, perhaps keeping their
powder dry for later in the year.
Thanks to time bonuses, Rui Costa takes a 4 second lead in the general classification.
Barring some misfortune tomorrow, he should hold onto the red jersey tomorrow as well,
with the traditional final stage around the Yas Marina F1 circuit.
Join us tomorrow, a little later than usual, for the finale of this race.
Make sure to subscribe to GCN for all the best racing action throughout the cycling season.
If you missed yesterday’s stage, you can click here to catch up, and for a highly scientific
study on crank length conducted by professor Matt Stephens down on the ground in Abu Dhabi, click here.

Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 3 Report

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