Dubai Tour: Kittel wins final stage to claim overall victory

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Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) sprinted to victory on the final stage of the Dubai Tour, outpacing Elia Viviani (Team Sky) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) to seal his second stage win of the four-day race. Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), the race leader on the day, lost ground in the run-up to the sprint and found himself well back, leaving the door open for Kittel to cap his first race in Etixx-QuickStep colours with the general classification victory.

The German's teammates hit the front going into the final kilometre of the stage, which finished in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, and he showed himself to be the strongest in the sprint. Viviani fought hard on Kittel's wheel but was unable to come past, while Cavendish faded to finish a couple of bike lengths back in third. 

Kittel wins the overall title by four seconds from Nizzolo, having started the day six seconds back before sweeping up the 10 bonus seconds on the finish line. Juan José Lobato (Movistar), who won stage 3 to the Hatta Dam, finished third overall at six seconds. 

"I am really really happy - I was already dreaming about this moment yesterday, and I really wanted it," said a jubilant Kittel.

"The team was fantastic in the final - we did an incredible job. When you look at the other teams they all came way too early, but we stayed calm and came in the right moment. It's great to finish the Dubai Tour, my first race with Etixx, like this. 

"My confidence is now probably 1000 times higher than a year ago. I am incredibly proud to start like this. I felt super when I came to Dubai and I think that's the perfect base to start the new season." 

How it unfolded

The fourth and final stage of the 2016 Dubai Tour was started out as usual from the Dubai Maritime Club and took riders on a flat but sinuous city-centre route. 

The breakaway, which would always have its work cut out given the parcours, formed early and was made up of Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Rui Costa, Jan Polanc (both Lampre-Merida), Sebastian Lander (ONE Pro), Roy Curvers (Giant-Alpecin), and Mark Christian (Team Wiggins).

With a bunch sprint pretty much inevitable, the escape group's lead stayed at around the three-minute mark for much of the day, and former world champion Costa jumped away to take both intermediate sprints, the second of which came with 35km remaining. 

Soon after, the peloton decided to step on the gas and reel them in, with Etixx, Astana, Trek-Segafredo, and Tinkoff all prominent. The bridge was made with 12km and Astana and Tinkoff were the teams setting the pace on the twisty roads. 

Going into the crucial kilometres, Etixx-QuickStep took control for Kittel before Trek took it up under the flamme rouge. However, Nizzolo was not in tow and as his leadout men looked around to find him, Etixx once again hit the front, with Fabio Sabatini leading Kittel through a right-hander before pulling off and letting his teammate finish the job. 

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