Abu Dhabi: Grand Tour stars proved to be no match for Rui Costa of UAE Team Emirates as he powered his way past Russian Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha Alpecin to conquer the crucial mountain stage of Jebel Hafeet at the Abu Dhabi Tour on Saturday.

Costa now leads the General Classification by four seconds over Zakarin and by 16 seconds over Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb going into the final Yas Marina Stage on Sunday.

A jubilant Costa, revealing the secret of his success, said that his move to attack from long way out during the climb clicked. “I started the final climb a long way back and I had to put a lot of effort to reach the front of the peloton. When I got there, I realised that my legs were good and I tried to surprise the others with an attack. That was the right tactic,” said Costa adding that, he was suffering from the initial effort and so tried to save energy for the final sprint with Zakarin.

“For us, it was very important to have a great result here. I can’t say I was under pressure but psychologically I knew we had to perform at our best. “We won and there couldn’t be a better result. We are extremely happy for this victory here in Abu Dhabi, with a new sponsor and a brand new jersey. I’m very happy with this victory that will boost my morale for the remainder of the season.”

With the mountain stage of Jebel Hafeet being the key decider for the overall title, it was time to switch focus from the sprinters to the climbers.

Going into the 186km third stage starting from Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, Mark Cavendish was leading the general classification ahead of Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel. Marco Canola of Nippo Vini Fantini was ahead in the intermediate sprint ranking, while the best young rider is Caleb Ewan of Orica Scott and UAE Team Emirates was at the top of the team rankings.

That was all expected to change once the riders stepped up for the final ascent. The 15 kms uphill finish at an altitude of 1,025m with a 11% gradient can wear out the best in business.

Understandably, the focus was on Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo). The stalwarts’ aim got lost in the climb trying to be more concerned about each other’s move.

Earlier, 90 kms from the finish, the crosswind picked up pace and made it extremely difficult for the riders with sand flowing on to the course. Even red flags were raised and riders were asked to cut down their pace for a brief while to avoid any crash.

At this point, the four breakaways – Stephen Clancy (Novo Nordik), Alan Marangoni (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani CSF) and Pavel Brutt (Gazprom-Rusvelo) were still enjoying a lead of 2’25” and that swelled to a maximum 4’55” at the 66km mark. The intermediate sprint after 166km at Al Ain Zoo was won by Andreetta comfortably ahead of Marangoni but by now, the lead was reduced to 1’20”. The peloton caught up with the breakaways with 14kms from finish at Green Mubazzarah.

Kittel, then, won the last intermediate sprint immediately ahead of Cavendish but the climbers led by Quintana took charge of the testing climb straightaway.

Midway through the ascent, UAE Team Emirates’ best bet Costa, who was overshadowed by the sprinters for two days, emerged from the backgrounds and donning the UAE logo on his chest, he cut the pack into shreds with his pace.

What started as a beeline was reduced to a scattered lot and even Quintana realised, there was no catching-up as he got stuck being in the company of reputed contenders. Before realisation struck, it was too late to make amends. Costa had come into this Tour with two morale-boosting stage wins at the Tour of Oman and he brought that experience into play.

The dash for glory was now between him and Zakarin. The latter made his move and went ahead for a brief while but Costa remained at his tail. A slight downhill before the final one kilometre to the tape allowed Costa to catch his breath and once he stepped his foot on the pedal, there was no stopping him.

Results Stage 3

1. Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 4:34:08

2. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha-Alpecin “

3. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:10

4 . Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:28

5. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:46

6. Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana “

7. Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe “

8. George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo “

9. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale “

10. Nairo Quintana (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:58

General Classification

1 Rui Costa (UAE Emirates) 12:39.15

2 Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) +0.04

3 Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) +0.16

4 Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) +0.56

5 Rafal Makja (Bora Hansgrohe) “

6 George Bennett (LottoNL Jumbo) “

7 Fabo Aru (Astana) “

8 Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R) “

9 Julian Alaphililppe (QuickStep) “

10 Roman Bardet (AG2R) +1.08 “

Stage 4 - Yas Island Stage / Yas Marina Circuit 143km

The final stage is entirely on Yas Island. There are 26 laps on the F1 Yas Marina circuit, each of 5.5km with three Intermediate Sprints as we count down to the finale. The first Intermediate Sprint is at lap 11, with 15 laps to go; the second at 10 laps to go and the last Intermediate Sprints with just five laps to go.

In 2015 during the Yas Island Stage, for the first time ever in a men’s professional road race, live on-board bike camera footage was made available and used for live television race coverage.

On the perfect tarmac of a 5.5km Formula 1 circuit with wide roads and large, sweeping bends. The final 250 metres are on straight, flat asphalt.