Ewan wins Abu Dhabi Tour stage four as Costa takes GC
Orica Scott's Caleb Ewan demonstrated he can out sprint the very best in the world as he won a very wet Abu Dhabi Tour stage four and Rui Costa stayed safe to win the overall classification.
The young, diminutive Ewan showed that power output isn't the be all and end all, as he pulled away from large world class sprinters, such as Lotto Soudal's Andre Griepel and Quick-Step Floors' Marcel Kittel, to make up for his failure after a premature celebration on stage two.
Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates' Rui Costa managed to avoid trouble to secure his first stage race win since 2014 and give his new sponsors a victory in their only home race on the UCI WorldTour calendar, with Katusha-Alpecin's Ilnur Zakarin and Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin finishing second and third respectively. In the other classifications, Dimension Data's Mark Cavendish came out on top in the green jersey competition, Quick-Step Floors' Julian Alaphilippe won the white young rider jersey and Bora Hansgrohe's Patrick Konrad overturned Nippo - Vini Fantini's Marco Canola to win the black intermediate sprint jersey.
The fourth and final stage of Abu Dhabi's first WorldTour race comprised 143 kilometres worth of laps around Yas Marina F1 circuit, amid decidedly un-Abu Dhabi weather conditions. Despite what looked on paper to be a very uninteresting stage - to put it mildly - the race organisers placed three intermediate sprints on the course (at 15, ten and five laps to go), to as least make sure there was some in race action before the final sprint.
A six man break got away fairly early, with Konrad taking the spoils at the first intermediate sprint. This pricked the attentions of the Nippo - Vini Fantini team, as their man Canola was perhaps in danger of losing his black intermediate sprints jersey should Konrad pick up enough points. They therefore kept the pace at the front of the peloton high, not allowing the break more than 30 seconds just in case Canola needed to get ahead to nick a few extra points.
Konrad, however, did indeed take the second intermediate sprint and with it the intermediate sprints jersey, putting paid to Canola's efforts two stages prior.
Only two riders were committed to keeping the peloton at bay with 44km to go, Movistar's Alex Dowsett and BMC Racing's Edwards Thuens, although neither could do much to prevent the field closing them down to a rather ineffectual five second gap.
The final intermediate sprint beckoned and Quick-Step Floors were keen to push their white jersey holder Alaphilippe up the standings, setting him up for maximum points and bonus seconds, leap frogging him from ninth to fifth on the overall classification.
Orica Scott now took control at the front of the pack, dictating the pace for their sprinter Ewan. Orica's giant Roger Kluge was the perfect lead out man, the Aussie powerhouse leaving messrs Griepel, Kittel and Cavendish in his wake. Ewan learnt from his error on stage two too, leaving the celebrating until he'd actual crossed the finishing line.
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| Credit: cyclingnews.com |
Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates' Rui Costa managed to avoid trouble to secure his first stage race win since 2014 and give his new sponsors a victory in their only home race on the UCI WorldTour calendar, with Katusha-Alpecin's Ilnur Zakarin and Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin finishing second and third respectively. In the other classifications, Dimension Data's Mark Cavendish came out on top in the green jersey competition, Quick-Step Floors' Julian Alaphilippe won the white young rider jersey and Bora Hansgrohe's Patrick Konrad overturned Nippo - Vini Fantini's Marco Canola to win the black intermediate sprint jersey.
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| Credit: channelnewsasia.com |
A six man break got away fairly early, with Konrad taking the spoils at the first intermediate sprint. This pricked the attentions of the Nippo - Vini Fantini team, as their man Canola was perhaps in danger of losing his black intermediate sprints jersey should Konrad pick up enough points. They therefore kept the pace at the front of the peloton high, not allowing the break more than 30 seconds just in case Canola needed to get ahead to nick a few extra points.
Konrad, however, did indeed take the second intermediate sprint and with it the intermediate sprints jersey, putting paid to Canola's efforts two stages prior.
Only two riders were committed to keeping the peloton at bay with 44km to go, Movistar's Alex Dowsett and BMC Racing's Edwards Thuens, although neither could do much to prevent the field closing them down to a rather ineffectual five second gap.
The final intermediate sprint beckoned and Quick-Step Floors were keen to push their white jersey holder Alaphilippe up the standings, setting him up for maximum points and bonus seconds, leap frogging him from ninth to fifth on the overall classification.
Orica Scott now took control at the front of the pack, dictating the pace for their sprinter Ewan. Orica's giant Roger Kluge was the perfect lead out man, the Aussie powerhouse leaving messrs Griepel, Kittel and Cavendish in his wake. Ewan learnt from his error on stage two too, leaving the celebrating until he'd actual crossed the finishing line.
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