Abu Dhabi Tour: Bauhaus edges out Kittel on stage 3

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Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) took a photo finish win on stage 3 of the Abu Dhabi Tour. Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) took second, and Pascal Ackerman (Bora-hansgrohe) repeated his third place of the previous stage.

Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) finished fourth on the stage, and retained his overall lead.

"To expect to win is difficult. I knew that I was going well at home and my goal was to take a podium or a win and I am super happy that I was able to do it. It’s really nice. We have a super strong team and I am really happy that it worked out here," Bauhaus said.

With five riders crossing the finish line almost simultaneously, a photo finish was required, with the decision finally falling in Bauhaus’ favour. It was Team Sunweb’s first win of the season, making them the last WorldTour team to claim a victory.

A four-man group was away for the first half of the stage, but things stayed together after that. The expected wind and echelons made only brief appearances.

"We did a good job again as a team with lead out men Alvaro Hodeg and Fabio Sabatini," Viviani said after the stage. "We came out of the last corner at the front. But in this Abu Dhabi Tour, the win is always a factor. It was another head wind sprint. Bauhaus had the strength to come from the back. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, we have to accept it. However, I'm happy with my team again today.”

How it unfolded

Stage 3 with its 133 flat kilometres around the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was the last chance for the sprinters. Virtually from the start, the group of the day formed. Marco Maronese (Bardiani CSF), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) and Sam Brand (Team Novo Nordisk).

Despite having a rider in that break group, Gazprom led the chase behind, hoping to secure some intermediate sprint points for Nikolay Trusov. Rolland took off when the gap was down to 18 seconds, but by 53 km to go, all four had been caught. Gazprom promptly fell back and let Bardiani take over the lead work.

As was to be expected, echelons came into play in the latter part of the stage and with 44.5km to go, the field split. The pace was high, and Alexander Kristoff fell victim as he crashed at a roundabout. It took him a minute or two to get going again and he had to work his way through the team cars alone. Once back at the field, which was now back together, he spent a lot of time at the UAE Team Emirates car to allow the team mechanic attend to his bike.

Things calmed down again as the field got back together. The peloton stayed together, gliding into the finale. The sprinters’ teams moved to the front and kept the situation under their control with Movistar joining the head of the peloton in the final three kilometres

Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) led the bunch around the final corners and Caleb Ewan was the first of the sprinters to jump but was soon joined by others for a photo finish of a number of riders. The jury finally decided on Bauhaus, who took his and his team’s first win of the year.

Brief Results