Arnstadt's Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shmano) managed the hat-trick in the first four-day edition of the Dubai Tour. Only the opening time trial went to the American Taylor Phinney (BMC), who also secured the overall victory.
The final stage, which took the peloton from Dubai over 123 kilometers to Burj-Khalifa, was initially dominated by a three-man lead group. Francisco Mancebo (Skydive Dubai), Pier Paolo de Negri (Vini Fantini-Nippo) and Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo) broke away early and, despite a rather small lead of just under a minute with 13 kilometers to go, led the race.
At this point, the sprinter teams in the field had already taken matters into their own hands. Above all, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) wanted to make life difficult for Kittel in the final. But things turned out differently again. Because while the Brit touched a curb in the hectic final and lost all chances of winning the day, Sagan fell almost five kilometers before the finish.
Not everything went according to plan for Kittel either. He had lost the rear wheel of his teammates with about two kilometers to go but managed to jump back to the front and eventually edged out Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Andrea Guardini (Astana). “This is the best start to the season of my career”, so Kittel after the victory.
Phinney, whose Team BMC had controlled the pace of the field for the first half of the race, topped his teammate Stephen Cummings and Danish Omnium Olympic Champion Lasse Norman Hansen (Garmin-Sharp) overall.
"I'm sure I'm relieved", so pleased Phinney, "Every day I thought I might lose the lead. But the team gave me confidence.”
Result
1. Marcel Kittel (Giant Shimano) 2:41:09
2. Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 0:00:00
3. Andrea Guardini (Astana) 0:00:00
4. Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) 0:00:00
5. Alexander Porsev (Katusha) 0:00:00
Total
1.Taylor Phinney (BMC) 8:31:33
2. Stephen Cummings (BMC) 0:00:15
3. Lasse Norman Hansen (Garmin Sharp) 0:00:17
4. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 0:00:23
5. Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) 0:00:26