Dennis storms to fourth stage win and takes overall lead

Al Maryah Island: Rohan Dennis of BMC Racing Team, a triple Australian champion for Individual Time Trial, claimed Stage IV on the penultimate day of the Abu Dhabi Tour on Saturday. He clocked the 12.6-km course 14 seconds faster than Spanish champion Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) and 16 seconds faster than his compatriot and teammate Miles Scotson.

World champion Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) suffered a mechanical issue and lost 31 seconds after he scored the best intermediate time check with an advantage of one second over Dennis, who will start the conclusive stage up to Jabel Hafeet in the Red Jersey.

“It was never straightforward. We had headwind, crosswind, tailwind… we never knew where it’d come from. Jabel Hafeet is a pretty good climb for me. It’s a hard climb but it suits a TT rider. It’s not a technical run in like we usually find in Europe. We’ll put everything into keeping this Red Jersey,” Dennis said at the media briefing later.

“It’d be great for me to win the overall classification of a stage race outside of Australia or America. Obviously, Dumoulin is right up there, but Valverde is probably the most threatening rider. He was strong on the flat, he’ll be dangerous uphill too. Crashing out of the Giro wasn’t great last year, so I’ll have a second crack this year, I’ll just keep cracking away. Everything Dumoulin has done is a confidence booster in what’s possible for me.”

Best young rider, Miles Scotson, said: “We have four BMC riders in the top 10, Rohan won and I was third so we couldn’t be happier. The course suited me. Shorter time trials still suit me more than long ones at the moment. You can see I lost some time on Rohan. He took 15 seconds out of me in the last 5 km or so. With Rohan in this position, it’ll be 100 per cent for him tomorrow. We want to chase the overall. That’s what we’re here for. I’ll give what I can to him.”

UAE Team Emirates’ Diego Ulissi, meanwhile, was just three seconds outside of a top-10 stage finish in the individual time trial. Ulissi managed to secure a 15th place finish, increasing his standings in the General Classification (GC) and giving the team a boost ahead of the final stage on the tour.

Reigning Abu Dhabi Tour champion, Rui Costa and teammate Fabio Aru also put in strong efforts to see their stock rise in the GC to 17th and 26th respectively.

Commenting on his performance, Ulissi said; “The Time Trial course was really technical with several turns, which was not helped by the wind — it really suited the Time Trial specialists who have a lot of power. I felt good considering it’s only my second race of the season and we’ll see tomorrow if we can mount a challenge for a stage win.”

Riders will now gear up for the final stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour and arguably the most exciting. Setting off from Qasr Al Muwaiji, riders will contest gruelling 199km route — the longest on the Abu Dhabi Tour — taking in the copper dunes of Al Ain’s desert, before looping round to pass Al Ain Oasis.

The real test, especially for the sprinters, comes in the final kilometres as riders begin the ascent up the UAE’s most well-known mountain — Jebel Hafeet. This stage played a crucial part in last year’s race, as UAE Team Emirates’ Rui Costa broke free to secure the stage win and overall tour victory.