Abu Dhabi Tour 2018 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

February 23, 2018

Abu Dhabi Tour 2018 – Stage 1 – Nation Towers – Big Flag : 133 km

The 2018 Abu Dhabi Tour is a road cycling stage race that is taking place between 21 and 25 February 2018 in Abu Dhabi. It is the fourth edition of the Abu Dhabi Tour and the third event of the 2018 UCI World Tour.

Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) took a photo finish win on stage 3 of the Abu Dhabi Tour. Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) took second, and Pascal Ackerman (Bora-hansgrohe) repeated his third place of the previous stage.

Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) finished fourth on the stage, and retained his overall lead.

“To expect to win is difficult. I knew that I was going well at home and my goal was to take a podium or a win and I am super happy that I was able to do it. It’s really nice. We have a super strong team and I am really happy that it worked out here,” Bauhaus said.

With five riders crossing the finish line almost simultaneously, a photo finish was required, with the decision finally falling in Bauhaus’ favour. It was Team Sunweb’s first win of the season, making them the last WorldTour team to claim a victory.

A four-man group was away for the first half of the stage, but things stayed together after that. The expected wind and echelons made only brief appearances.

“We did a good job again as a team with lead out men Alvaro Hodeg and Fabio Sabatini,” Viviani said after the stage. “We came out of the last corner at the front. But in this Abu Dhabi Tour, the win is always a factor. It was another head wind sprint. Bauhaus had the strength to come from the back. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, we have to accept it. However, I’m happy with my team again today.”

How it unfolded

Stage 3 with its 133 flat kilometres around the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was the last chance for the sprinters. Virtually from the start, the group of the day formed. Marco Maronese (Bardiani CSF), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) and Sam Brand (Team Novo Nordisk).

Despite having a rider in that break group, Gazprom led the chase behind, hoping to secure some intermediate sprint points for Nikolay Trusov. Rolland took off when the gap was down to 18 seconds, but by 53 km to go, all four had been caught. Gazprom promptly fell back and let Bardiani take over the lead work.

As was to be expected, echelons came into play in the latter part of the stage and with 44.5km to go, the field split. The pace was high, and Alexander Kristoff fell victim as he crashed at a roundabout. It took him a minute or two to get going again and he had to work his way through the team cars alone. Once back at the field, which was now back together, he spent a lot of time at the UAE Team Emirates car to allow the team mechanic attend to his bike.

Things calmed down again as the field got back together. The peloton stayed together, gliding into the finale. The sprinters’ teams moved to the front and kept the situation under their control with Movistar joining the head of the peloton in the final three kilometres

Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) led the bunch around the final corners and Caleb Ewan was the first of the sprinters to jump but was soon joined by others for a photo finish of a number of riders. The jury finally decided on Bauhaus, who took his and his team’s first win of the year.

Results :
1 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb 3:02:55
2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
3 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
6 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
7 Rudy Barbier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
9 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
10 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF
11 Daniel McLay (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
12 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
13 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky
14 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
15 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
16 Alex Frame (NZl) Trek-Segafredo
17 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
18 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
19 José Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
20 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott
21 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
22 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
23 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
24 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team
25 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
26 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
27 Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF
28 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
29 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb
30 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
31 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
32 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
33 Jos van Emden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
34 Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
35 Bjorg Lambrecht (Bel) Lotto Soudal
36 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
37 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
38 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
39 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
40 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
41 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
42 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
43 Davide Villella (Ita) Astana Pro Team
44 Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
45 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo
46 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
47 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo
48 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
49 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
50 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
51 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Mitchelton-Scott
52 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
53 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
54 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team
55 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team
56 Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
57 Gijs Van Hoecke (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
58 Roger Kluge (Ger) Mitchelton-Scott
59 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
60 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky
61 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
62 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF
63 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
64 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin
65 Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
66 Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
67 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
68 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors
69 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
70 Kim Magnusson (Swe) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
71 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
72 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
73 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
74 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF
75 Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
76 Marco Maronese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
77 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Movistar Team
78 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team
79 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
80 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
81 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
82 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
83 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
84 Michael Bresciani (Ita) Bardiani CSF
85 Victor De La Parte (Spa) Movistar Team
86 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Trek-Segafredo
87 Robert Wagner (Ger) LottoNL-Jumbo
88 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
89 Jack Bauer (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott
90 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) BMC Racing Team
91 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida
92 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
93 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
94 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin
95 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
96 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
97 Remy Mertz (Bel) Lotto Soudal
98 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky
99 Hendrikus van Ijzendoorn (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
100 Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Quick-Step Floors
101 Clement Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
102 Scott Davies (GBr) Dimension Data
103 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
104 Manuele Mori (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
105 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb
106 Daniel Moreno (Spa) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
107 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
108 Sebastian Henao (Col) Team Sky
109 Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
110 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
111 Michael Gogl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo
112 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
113 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb
114 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
115 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Lotto Soudal
116 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
117 Sam Brand (GBr) Team Novo Nordisk 0:00:19
118 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data
119 Artem Nych (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
120 Leonardo Basso (Ita) Team Sky 0:00:26
121 Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:32
122 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors
123 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
124 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal
125 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott
126 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Movistar Team
127 Evgeny Shalunov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
128 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
129 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
130 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
131 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
132 James Knox (GBr) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:36
133 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
134 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:39
135 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:15
136 Matthias Brändle (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:30
DNS Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team

General Classification after Stage 3 :
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 11:06:36
2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:03
3 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb
4 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:05
5 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:07
6 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
7 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:09
8 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:10
9 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo
10 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF
11 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:11
12 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
13 Rudy Barbier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:12
14 José Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
15 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:00:13
16 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky
17 Daniel McLay (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
18 Alex Frame (NZl) Trek-Segafredo
19 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
20 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team
21 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
22 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
23 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
24 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
25 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
26 Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
27 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
28 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb
29 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
30 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
31 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
32 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
33 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
34 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
35 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
36 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Mitchelton-Scott
37 Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF
38 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
39 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
40 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
41 Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
42 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
43 Davide Villella (Ita) Astana Pro Team
44 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
45 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
46 Jos van Emden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
47 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky
48 Michael Gogl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo
49 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF
50 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors
51 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
52 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
53 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
54 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
55 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
56 Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
57 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
58 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
59 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team
60 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott
61 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
62 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team
63 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
64 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin
65 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
66 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
67 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
68 Gijs Van Hoecke (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
69 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Trek-Segafredo
70 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
71 Kim Magnusson (Swe) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
72 Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
73 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky
74 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
75 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Movistar Team
76 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
77 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:27
78 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:28
79 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data 0:00:32
80 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:33
81 Daniel Moreno (Spa) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
82 Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:34
83 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:36
84 Robert Wagner (Ger) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:37
85 Leonardo Basso (Ita) Team Sky 0:00:39
86 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Movistar Team 0:00:45
87 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors
88 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
89 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott
90 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:48
91 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:52
92 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Lotto Soudal
93 Roger Kluge (Ger) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:57
94 Jack Bauer (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:03
95 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb
96 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:13
97 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:35
98 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:09
99 Remy Mertz (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:02:10
100 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 0:02:23
101 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:39
102 James Knox (GBr) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:49
103 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:04:16
104 Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
105 Marco Maronese (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:04:17
106 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:04:18
107 Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
108 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:04:19
109 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk 0:04:20
110 Bjorg Lambrecht (Bel) Lotto Soudal
111 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
112 Michael Bresciani (Ita) Bardiani CSF
113 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
114 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo
115 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
116 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) BMC Racing Team
117 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
118 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
119 Clement Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
120 Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
121 Victor De La Parte (Spa) Movistar Team
122 Sebastian Henao (Col) Team Sky
123 Manuele Mori (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
124 Scott Davies (GBr) Dimension Data
125 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
126 Hendrikus van Ijzendoorn (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
127 Sam Brand (GBr) Team Novo Nordisk 0:04:38
128 Artem Nych (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:04:39
129 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:04:52
130 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
131 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
132 Evgeny Shalunov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
133 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:04:56
134 Matthias Brändle (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:04:57
135 Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:58
136 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:06:04