Dubai Tour: Viviani wins final stage to secure overall victory

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Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) won the final stage of the Dubai Tour in a bunch sprint to secure final overall victory. The Italian came from a long way back in the finishing straight to overhaul Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) at the line, while Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue Sport) claimed third.

The run-in was marred by a crash in the final kilometre that saw Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) come down. The incident also ruined Dylan Groenewegen’s chances and forced Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) to a standstill. The Manxman emerged unscathed from the incident but was unable to play any part in the sprint.

Marcel Kittel’s trying opening race in Katusha-Alpecin colours continued on the final day of the Dubai Tour, and he could only manage 6th on the stage after losing contact with his lead-out amid the confusion of the late crash. Two of Kittel’s teammates ended up sprinting for placings just ahead of him, with Haller taking second and Rick Zabel placing fifth.

Viviani, by contrast, has made a seamless transition to life at Quick-Step Floors and has struck up a fine understanding with Fabio Sabatini, who was previously a teammate at Liquigas. Sabatini helped to pilot Viviani through a rather chaotic final kilometre on Saturday, putting him in position to sprint for the stage win and to secure final overall victory.

“I needed all of my teammates for the last kilometres, and Saba did an amazing job again. He always knows when I’m on his wheel,” Viviani said. “We only just missed the crash, and Saba led me towards the front. I think with 50 metres to go, I realised I could win.”

Viviani had begun the day just two seconds ahead of Magnus Cort (Astana) in the general classification, but understood that he could not afford to base his final sprint around the Dane. In the end, it was a rather fragmented bunch finish. After Lotto-Soudal led into the final kilometre, Cofidis took up the reins before the crash removed their leader Bouhanni from contention.

Katusha-Alpecin had strength in numbers towards the front, but Kittel was unable to link up successfully with his lead-out amid the tumult, and it was ultimately Haller and Zabel who led the line for the team in red, vying with Jempy Drucker (BMC) as the sprint opened.

In the final 50 metres, however, Viviani emerged at Haller’s shoulder and powered past to claim a fine victory. Like the Italian, Blythe was closing rapidly in the final metres, but he had to settle for third, while Drucker held on for fourth.

Magnus Cort could only manage 8th in the sprint, which meant that when the bonuses were factored in, Viviani had claimed the overall victory by 12 seconds. Stage 4 winner Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) placed third overall a further two seconds back.

“It’s amazing,” Viviani said of his overall win. “This morning I was really stressed, but with a two-second lead it was really all or nothing. If we sprinted just to control the others, then would lose. Our hope was that a break would go early without any GC guys, and then we could focus on the sprint, and that’s what happened.”

Cort, meanwhile, declared himself satisfied with second overall and the white jersey of best young rider. “Maybe I hoped for a better result in today’s stage, but I’m happy to keep second and the white jersey,” he said. “The crash slowed me down a little, but it also took away riders who were in front of me. I was too far back to do a great sprint.”

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How it unfolded

At just 132 kilometres in length and on a pan flat, largely urban course, the Meraas stage of the 2018 Dubai Tour was always likely to finish in a bunch sprint, but that did not mean there was a lack of willing attackers on the final day of the five-day race.

Daniel Pearson (Aqua Blue Sport) was the first rider on the offensive, going clear alone inside the opening kilometres, though he was glad to be joined by reinforcements shortly afterwards as Sun Xiaolong (Mitchelton-BikeExchange), Quentin Valognes (Novo-Nordisk) and Nasser Almemari (Team UAE) bridged across.

The quartet struck up a decent working alliance, establishing a maximum lead of 4:40 before the sprinters’ teammates – and Bram Tankink of LottoNL-Jumbo, in particular – set about reducing that gap to more manageable dimensions.

While Valognes was in the process of picking up enough intermediate points to win the sprint classification, his Novo Nordisk teammate Christopher Williams endured a rather more trying day as he was forced to abandon the race after an early crash.

The escapees had a shade over a minute in hand on the bunch as they entered the final 25 kilometres, and it was at this juncture that Pearson decided to try his luck alone. The Welshman fought gamely but with UAE-Team Emirates joining the pursuit behind, his solo effort never looked like going the distance.

Just as the peloton was on the point of capturing Pearson inside the final 9 kilometres, the Mitchelton-BikeExhange duo of Jacob Hennessy and Robert Stannard went on the offensive. They shot past Pearson and opened a lead of 13 seconds over the bunch before they, too, were brought to heel with 3km to go.

Bahrain-Merida hit the front as the pace ratcheted up ahead of the sprint, with Vincenzo Nibali prominent, before LottoNL-Jumbo took over in support of Groenewegen. The Dutchman’s hopes evaporated in the crash inside the final kilometre, however, and instead it was Viviani who claimed the stage and overall victory to bring his running tally for the season to three wins.

“This is a really important step up,” Viviani said. “I came to Quick-Step thinking I wanted to be one of the best sprinters in the world, and I think this is a good start. The result is 90% about the team, the work they did was amazing and the tactics were great. Brian [Holm] did a great job in the team car.”

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