Ewan wins stage 4 of the Abu Dhabi Tour ahead of Cavendish and Greipel

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Orica-Scott's Caleb Ewan won Sunday's fourth and final stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour on the Yas Marina Formula One circuit. The Australian triumphed over Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) in a bunch sprint after 143 kilometres of racing.

The sprinter-friendly finale gave Ewan a chance to redeem himself after he fumbled away the victory on stage 2 when he celebrated too soon and allowed Marcel Kittel (Quick Step Floors) to pip him at the line. He made the most of the opportunity Sunday, taking the win ahead of the impressive field of speedsters on the start list. Cavendish tried to come from a long way back, but had no chance to catch the speedy youngster.

"I guess I started this race on a real low with that crash and then I finished on an absolute high," Ewan said. "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. They controlled the race from 15 kilometres 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."

Rui Costa, winner of Saturday's queen stage up the Jebel Hafeet climb, finished safely to wrap up the overall general classification victory for UAE Team Emirates on the squad's home turf. Katusha-Alpecin's Ilnur Zakarin claimed overall runner-up honors and Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin rounded out the GC podium in third.

The peloton faced an unexpected and unpleasant surprise on stage 4, as Abu Dhabi experienced one of its rare rainy days. It poured down most of the afternoon, but riders fortunately managed to avoid any serious incidents on the rain-slicked roads.

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The stage consisted of multiple laps of the (empty) Yas Marina Formula One racetrack. Shortly after the start, Dylan Teuns (BMC), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Kirill Sveshnikov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Rafael Valls (Lotto Soudal) and Movistar's Alex Dowsett and Jorge Arcas jumped clear to form the day's main breakaway..

They never had much of a lead, barely reaching the two-minute mark. Konrad scored enough points at the intermediate sprints to take that ranking, and also to sneak into the top 10, bumping Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) down to 11th overall. Konrad was the first of the group to drop back, having achieved his purpose.

The others dropped off one by one, with only Teuns and Dowsett hanging on doggedly to a tiny gap. But they too were back in the peloton with 28.7 kilometres left as the bunch kept things under control for the seemingly inevitable bunch sprint.

From there it was merely a question of grinding out laps of the 5.5-km circuit. With three kilometres left the GC candidates could mostly relax, though as the pace picked up they had to stay alert to any potential gaps.

A twisting and turning final kilometer made it difficult for the sprint trains to. Ewan had one lead out rider, Luka Mezgec, who delivered him nearly to the finish line in perfect position. Cavendish was far back with 100 metres to go, and although he was able to nearly catch the young Australian, he could not come all the way around. German champion Greipel powered his way up the right-hand side but he too came up short.

The top GC contenders followed the sprinters over the line with the bunch, sealing the deal for Costa.

"It's true that in the rain the circuit was tough and complicated. It was a good thing that the team did such great work and in the end we won without too many problems," he said.

"The form is good and I hope I don’t have any problems between now and Tirreno Adriatico. I'm sure that, having won here, I go to Tirreno with even more focus. That said, I had raced more than some of the guys here. Tirreno will also be very different as there’s a time trial and a team time trial.

"Our team president, Mr Matar, didn’t say much but he was very happy and said I'd done something great for the UAE. That's also why this team exists - to encourage kids to ride their bikes and promote cycling in this country. It's a proud day for me and the team."

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