Dubai Tour: Marcel Kittel wins stage 3

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Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) won his second stage in a row at the Dubai Tour, timing his sprint to perfection to edge out Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) on stage 3 of the race to Hatta.

Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) maintained his race lead and with one stage still remaining looks on course to seal the overall.

However the day belonged to Kittel, who clung onto the leaders when the attacks rained down on the final two climbs of the stage, while a number of sprinters were dropped.

The win proved that Kittel can also win without his lead-out train, as the German was left with only Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg for company inside the final kilometres.

“It was really hard. I had enough power to pass the climbs but if it was one more kilometre then I would have been dropped. I knew the final and I knew my chances were 50-50 but I’m very happy to have made it,” the German said at the finish.

“The team tried to help me as much as possible and we had to go for ourselves and see who was left. It was more difficult without the train."

Stage 3, with its two inclines towards the end of the race, was always going to provide a chance of disrupting the sprinters’ dominance but it was left to a six-man break of Evan Huffman (Astana), Willie Smit (Vini Fantini-Nippo), Ruslan Karimov (RTS-Santic Racing Team), Alexandr Pliuschin (Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team), Diogo Nunes (Banco BIC-Carmim) and João Pereira (Banco BIC-Carmim) to create the action early on.

The six riders established a healthy lead in the opening half of the stage and it forced race leader Taylor Phinney to deploy his BMC riders on the front in order to contain the danger.

The situation looked well under control for the American team, as with 38km to go the gap was down 2:38 with the break already starting to fall apart.

Ruslan was dropped, followed by the two Banco BIC-Carmim riders, and Huffman, leaving just Smit, part of the break on stage 2, and Pliuschin clear with 34km to go.

BMC, protecting Taylor Phinney’s interests, led the chase, allied in support with Fabian Cancellara’s Trek Factory Racing.

Up ahead, it wasn’t long before Pliuschin, a rider who slipped through the cracks at the WorldTour level, was on his own. Hands over the bars, gripping those imaginary Spinaci aero extensions, the 27-year-old pushed on, leading by 1:58 with 16 kilometres remaining. At just over a minute down on GC, his antics forced BMC to use yet more energy but despite a headwind, and strength in numbers, Pliuschin’s two-minute buffer remained as the kilometre check ticked down to 14 remaining.

The Moldovan, still comfortable, even had time to wave to the television crews as they drew alongside him and with 12.5km to go he was still the virtual overall leader by 44 seconds.

BMC’s Max Sciandri, aware that it was time to crack the whip, ushered his riders to step up their tempo for one final assault, and the move instantly shaved 20 seconds off Pliuschin’s lead. The move had its consequences, though, with two BMC riders cracking as the lead slipped to 1:20 with 10km to go.

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While the plucky Pliuschin could admirably hold off the force of the bunch there was little he could do against a steepening gradient and on the first incline his advantage dropped further still. It wasn’t just his strength that was quickly disappearing, the waves to the television crews stopped too as smiles turned to grimaces.

Movistar then crept up towards the front of the bunch as they turned the screw in a bid to distance the pure sprinters, with Adriano Malori briefly jumping clear.

Sagan’s Cannondale squad then played their first card, reeling in Pliuschin with 7.4km to go, as Damiano Caruso and Marco Marcato set the pace. Behind them sat Cummings and Phinney, with Sagan and Rui Costa also monitoring the situation.

On the descent of the climb Sagan personally took matters into his own hands with a number of gaps appearing in the peloton.

Tony Martin put in a shallow attack but it merely acted as a launch pad for Alejandro Valverde, who skipped clear with Sagan once again closing the gap. There was a brief drop in pace as the leaders came back together with 40 riders - including Cavendish, Kittel and Sagan - still in contention for the stage.

Rui Costa then showed his rainbow stripes with his first attack of the race. The Lampre rider’s acceleration was brought back with the remnants of the bunch altogether with 1,000 metres remaining.

The stage looked perfect for Sagan to pounce but too much work in a bid to drop the sprinters, coupled with poor positioning, saw him trail home in third, with Kittel once again raising his arms in victory.

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