Marcel Kittel punched by rider during Dubai Tour Stage 3

Trek-Segafredo's John Degenkolb won the sprint to win Stage Three of the Dubai Tour but it was an incident involving Quick-Step Floors' Marcel Kittel that stole the headlines.

Credit: cyclingnews.com

Degenkolb pipped Dimension Data's Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg to the line in Al Aqah, but it appeared something had rubbed Astana's Andre Grivko up the wrong way during the crosswind hampered desert section of the race, as he had appeared to have struck Kittel, resulting in a gash just above the German's eye.

Credit: mirror.co.uk

Astana released a statement saying: "Astana Pro Team apologises to Marcel Kittel and Quick-Step Floors for improper behavior of it's rider Andre Grivko during Stage Three of Dubai Tour."

Kittel wasn't going to accept the apology though, angrily replying: "I won't accept an apology for this. This has nothing to do with cycling. What Grivko did is a shame for our beautiful sport."

Unlike the previous two stages, the environment of Stage Three had the potential to throw up a surprise or two, with the combination of vast open desert and crosswinds an unenviable hazard to cope with for 200 kilometres. A sprint finish was always on the cards though.

Like Stage Two, it took a while before any breakaway made any inroads, but after 23km Movistar's Alex Dowsett, Bahrain-Merida's Luka Pibernik, Aqua Blue Sport's Mark Christian and BMC Racing's Loic Vliegen managed to free themselves from the peloton.

17km later the group had amassed a lead of over four minutes to the peloton, whereby Dowsett put his rarely used sprinting ability to good use, taking maximum points and three bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint. 

The wind was a taking considerable toll on the peloton, causing a few minor crashes and breaking the field into several echelons, making the teams work much harder than they wanted to to keep together. 

A chasing group containing Kittel fell as far as three minutes behind the main group, taking an exhausting 40km to get back, almost certainly putting paid to a Kittel victory.

The breakaway gallantly held on past the second intermediate sprint - won again by Dowsett - until they were brought back to the peloton for the tricky finish into Al Aqah.

In the absence of Kittel, Degenkolb was one of very few big name sprinters vying for a win, but Van Renburg was keen to cause an upset. 

Van Rensburg couldn't hold on though, leaving Degenkolb to punch past the South African just inches from the line, taking his first win for his new team. 

Kittel came in 11th to preserve his place at the top of the overal standings as his aggressor, Grivko, was disqualified from the race for violent conduct. 

Dylan Groenewegen also retains his second place but Degenkolb jumps up to third, with the rest of the top ten almost entirely made up of breakaway riders, courtesy of bonus seconds. 

Stage Four will play a massive part in deciding who wins the 2017 Dubai Tour, with those intent on victory needing to be first to summit the brutal Hatta Dam, or at least maintain time gaps, which has proved to create some major time splits in years gone by.