Abu Dhabi: If last year’s third stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour is a reliable gauge, then Estonia’s Tanel Kangert can feel exceedingly confident of claiming overall victory in the 2016 event on Sunday.
Kangert emulated the feat of Esteban Chaves, who went on to become the inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour champion in October 2015, by winning the gruelling penultimate stage of the showpiece on Saturday.
The 150-kilometre course winds around Al Ain before ascending Jebel Hafeet, a punishing 11-kilometre stretch with an imposing 11 per cent gradient.
But Kangert looked calmness personified throughout the summit finish and surged to victory to secure the overall leader’s red jersey.
He finished in three hours, 31 minutes and 31 seconds and was followed by Irishman Nicholas Roche, 17 seconds back, and Eritrean Mekseb Debesay and Italian Diego Ulissi, who were joint-third a further 33 seconds behind.
Kangert, at 9h 19m 44s, takes a 21-second overall lead over Roche heading into Sunday’s final stage, a 26-lap sprint around Yas Marina Circuit.
He now only needs to avoid crashing in the finale to become the second Abu Dhabi Tour champion.
Ulissi is 43 seconds behind in third and lurking ominously joint-fourth, a minute behind, are cycling luminaries Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador.
Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish, the event ambassador who won Friday’s second stage, remains the green jersey general point classification leader. Frenchman Julien Bernard snatched the young rider’s white jersey from Dion Smith and Jens Keukeleire leads the intermediate sprint classification, meanwhile.
Kangert was delighted that he and fellow Team Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali had proved their extraordinary powers of endurance.
“Yesterday Vincenzo told me that he was going to work for me today and I knew that I had a chance to do something,” he said. “If I have the chance then I really have to use it and luckily I had the legs today.
“We knew from the start that we had two good climbers here, especially Vincenzo, and I knew that if I had good legs, that I could also be there.
“Luckily, I had a good day and that was the tactic; we just had to be there in the final [group]. For a moment, it was quite hectic with the side wind, but luckily our team was really good and strong in the beginning and they protected us from the crosswinds. I arrived on the climb quite fresh.
“I think he [Roche] was more tired than I was and I was a little bit afraid of a headwind in the final, but luckily the wind changed direction.”
The final stage is entirely on Yas Island. There are 26 laps on the Yas Marina Circuit, each of 5.5km, with three intermediate Sprints.
The first intermediate sprint is at lap 11, with 15 laps to go; the second at 10 laps to go and the last with just five laps to go.
Last year during the Yas Island Stage, for the first time in a men’s professional road race, live, on-board bike camera footage was made available and used for live television race coverage.
