Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step) took his second stage win in the Dubai Tour today in addition to winning the race overall.
Going into the stage, he trailed Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) by 6 seconds. With a ten second bonus available to the stage winner, Kittel knew that he could win overall if he took the stage victory.
His team worked well to bring back the six early breakaways (Mark Christian (Team Wiggins), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Roy Curvers (Giant-Alpecin), Sebastian Lander (One Pro Cycling), Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data)) inside the closing kilometres.
Coming into the final kilometres, his team managed to get him into the ideal position. The German was placed in third position coming into the last corner, after which he opened up his sprint. He proved unbeatable, with Elia Viviani (Sky) finishing in second with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) in third.
“In the morning, at the technical meeting, we said it’s going to be all or nothing and that we’re going to focus only on the final sprint,” said Kittel.”
“During the stage, we stayed calm and moved to the front at the right moment. The key in the Dubai Tour is to have a strong team all the time, and I had one, which gave 100% for me.”
“I was in an ideal position coming to the line and didn’t think at all of my opponents, just focused on doing things right. Now I’m very happy, and I’m taking a lot of confidence out of this success”, said the German, who credited his strong ride on the Hatta Dam climb as being decisive in the final outcome.
“That was the most important day of the race. It was a very hard ascent, with a 17% gradient, but I was in form and wanted to show what I can do on such a tough finish.”
