Abu Dhabi: Heavy showers lashed across the capital all through Sunday but it couldn’t spoil the festive look that the Yas Marina Circuit wore under lights for the Abu Dhabi Tour finale.
Sitting pretty with a four-second lead in the general classification, Rui Costa of UAE Team Emirates was all geared up to create history donning the red jersey and neither rain nor the star-studded field could stop him from clinching the title.
Having captured the game changer Jebel Hafeet stage, the Portuguese rider didn’t need to do anything extravagant to clinch the top honours. He just had to finish in the bunch and let the sprinters enjoy their share of glory in the final 26-lap 143km stage around the Formula one track.
Guarded well by his teammates, Costa crossed the finish line in the pack and ensured that the Ferrari-designed Silent Speed Trophy was his. More importantly, Costa also made sure that his association with UAE Team Emirates was off to a flying start in front of home fans.
Orica-Scott’s Caleb Ewan put his ‘embarrassing’ loss of the second stage behind to clinch the final Yas Marina Circuit Stage ahead of Mark Cavendish of Team Dimension and Andre Greipel of Lotto Soudal.
Ewan had lost out to Marcel Kittel of Quick-Step Floors in the second stage in the city after he committed the cardinal sin of celebrating early but on Sunday the hands came up only after he was well beyond the finish line. Cavendish, however, went on to clinch the point classification with his effort ahead of Ewan and Greipel.
“The course was very complicated and difficult especially with the rain. I’m very relieved to win this race for our sponsors and I would like to thank our management,” said a jubilant Costa.
Six riders comprising Dylan Teuns (BMC), Patrick Konrad (Bora Hansgrohe), Kirill Sveshnikov (Gazprom Rusvelo), Rafael Valls (Lotto Soudal), Alex Dowsett (Movistar) and Jorge Arcas (Movistar) broke away early from the 153 riders, who took to the final stage.
They swelled the lead to a maximum of 1’37” over the peloton, which was led by the UAE Team Emirates rider Manuele Mori with Costa nicely protected in the centre of the peloton. Despite the downpour, the sprint stars Kittel and Greipel managed to attain speeds of 50km per hour.
The first intermediate sprint after 11 laps at the 81km-mark was won by Konrad ahead of Sveshnikov.
At the 75km-mark and 14 laps from finish, the peloton had minimised the lead over the breakaways to 44 seconds.
The second intermediate sprint, 10 laps and 55km from finish was claimed by Konrad again, this time battling with Valls.
Konrad, having sealed the intermediate sprint classification, immediately dropped out after that success and the peloton were left chasing the last two escapees — Teuns and Dowsett.
The chase ended with five laps remaining at the 29.5km-mark and final intermediate sprint was won by Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step Floors. The peloton stayed together for the remaining part of the stage and none of the teams were allowed to make their move. In the final bunch sprint, Ewan was well placed by his teammates and the Australian showed he had the legs to beat the best.
“I guess I started this race on a real low with that crash and then I finished on an absolute high. After stage 2 I’m really happy to repay my team with a win. They did a great job, we started working early and we knew on this course, which were the important corners,” said Ewan adding that they controlled the race from 15km out and no one really came past us from that moment on.
“If you really want to be on top you need to beat Kittel, Cavendish and Greipel and for me beating them all here... I’m over the moon with that,” added Ewan.
