Chaves wins inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour

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Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) won the inaugural four-day-Abu Dhabi Tour, finishing safely in the peloton on the final stage on the Yas Marina Formula One circuit.

Elia Viviani (Team Sky) won the final stage after 20 high-speed laps of the five-kilometre circuit, beating Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) and Andrea Guardini (Astana)

The 110km stage was raced at twilight, giving the riders a respite from the scorching temperatures they faced during the first three stages. They started in the evening sun but the stage ended in the dark with huge lights illuminating the circuit. Racing on a closed circuit allowed for live on-board images to be produced and transmitted during the stage due to an agreement between race organisers RCS Sport and the Velon teams. World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) also carried out a fake pit stop after six laps to change his bike and helmet.

Chaves celebrated victory with his Orica-GreenEdge teammates. It's his first ever stage race success and comes after his two stage victories at the Vuelta a Espana and fifth overall.

The 25-year-old Colombian set up victory by winning the key mountain stage to Jebel Hafeet on Saturday. Chaves attacked alone five kilometres from the finish and distanced all his rivals. Only Wout Poels (Team Sky) was able to close the gap with a paced pursuit. However, the Dutchman slipped out on the final corner after sprinting ahead to enter the corner first. Chaves avoided hitting him and won alone, sportingly refusing to celebrate. Fabio Aru (Astana) also passed Poels to finish second, with the Dutchman finishing third after rushing to get back up.

Chaves won the Abu Dhabi Tour by 16 seconds ahead of the Italian with Poels third overall at 27 seconds. Jani Brajkovic (UnitedHealthcare) finished an impressive fourth on the mountain stage and was fourth overall at 41 seconds.

The last stage again saw an early break go clear, with Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) surging away on the opening laps. They opened a two-minute gap and fought for the three €6000 sprint prizes awarded on laps 6, 11 and 16. However, Orica-GreenEdge led the peloton and the chase for much of the stage, with Team Sky and Lampre-Merida also helping to ensure the stage ended in a sprint.

Results

Final General Classification

Points Classification

Sprint Classification

Best Young Rider