Mark Cavendish finished off a great week of racing and a perfect lead-out from his Etixx-QuickStep team when he won the bunch sprint on the final stage of the Dubai Tour. Having been led out by a very strong train, he easily held off Elia Viviani (Sky) and Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and as John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) could only manage 9th, the Brit won the race overall ahead of the German and Lobato.

Going into the final stage of the Dubai Tour, Mark Cavendish had a massive task. Trailing John Degenkolb by 4 seconds in the overall standings, he knew that he had to finish in the top 3 and beat his German rival if he wanted to add his name to the honour’s roll of the young event.

As always, the Brit excels when he is under the biggest pressure and he delivered perfectly on his promises to try to win the race when he won the final stage in front of the Burj Khalifa. After a very fast race through the city centre, it all came down to the expected bunch sprint and here Etixx-QuickStep really played with the muscles.

With 3km to go, Julien Vermote, Tony Martin, Lukasz Wisniowski, Fabio Sabatini, Mark Renshaw and Cavendish hit the front and they easily responded to an attack from the BMC duo of Manuel Quinziato and Stefan Küng. Martin took over the pace-setting with 2km to go while their rival trains fought hard for position a little further back.

With 1.5km to go, the Sky train tried to move up, with Geraint Thomas, Salvatore Puccio, Andrew Fenn, Bernhard Eisel, Ben Swift and Elia Viviani lined out but strong work by neo-pro Wisniowski held them off. Instead, it was Robert Förster (UnitedHealthCare) who briefly hit the front before Sabatini took over with 1km to go.

At this point, Kiel Reijnen (Unitedhealthcare), Ben Swift (Sky) and Juan Jose Lobato was on Cavendish’s wheel while the Giant-Alpecin train of Degenkolb was far back and Sky was completely disorganized. From there, Sabatini and Renshaw gave Cavendish a perfect lead-out and things only got easier when Reijnen was unable to keep his wheel.

Cavendish came perfectly off Renshaw’s wheel and even though Viviani and Lobato both came fast near the end, the outcome was never in doubt. The Brit had plenty of time to celebrate his win while Viviani narrowly beat Lobato in the battle for second.

With the bonus seconds, Cavendish took back the leader’s jersey from Degenkolb who dropped to second while bonus seconds for Lobato was enough for him to pass his teammate Alejandro Valverde and take the final spot on the podium. After an aggressive performance in the final stage, Marco Canola (Unitedhealthcare) moved into fifth by picking up bonus seconds while Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) also made use of bonifications to move into the top 10.

Cavendish of course also won the points competition while Michael Valgren (Tinkoff-Saxo) was the best young rider. Alessandro Bazzana (Unitedhealthcare) won the sprints competition while BMC were the best team in the four-day race.

Many riders will now travel back to Europe for their next races but some of them will already be back in action tomorrow when the triptych of races in the Middle East continues with the Tour of Qatar. None of the three riders on the podium, however, will continue their Arabian adventure.

A flat stage

The second edition of the Dubai Tour finished with a 123km stage that was mostly held in Dubai. The rider s briefly headed into the desert before they returned to the seafront along completely flat roads. The stage ended in front of the Burj Khalifa and all was set for a big bunch sprint to bring the race to an exciting conclusion.

For the fourth day in a row, the riders headed out on the course under a beautiful sunshine as they tackled what was set to be a fast final stage of the race. With a little less wind predicted, they could feel assured that the race would not split up and most expected it to come down to a bunch sprint.

A strong break

Andrea Piechele (Bardiani) was the only rider who didn't take the start but the rest of the riders got their day off to a furious beginning. Lots of attacks were launched in the first part of the race and it took some time for the break to be established.

After 9km of racing, Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), Daniel Oss (BMC), Maciej Paterski (CCC), Francisco Mancebo (Skydive) and Marco Canola (UnitedHealthCare) got clear and formed a very strong five-rider break. The peloton slowed down and when they reached the site of the first intermediate sprint after 12.8km of racing, the gap was already 3.30.

Bonus seconds for Boaro

Boaro beat Canola and Oss in the battle for the important bonus seconds to move into 10th in the overall standings while Canola moved into fifth. With Boaro, Canola and Mancebo all being GC threats, Giant-Alpecin had to start a chase and they quickly took control of the situation, putting Tobias Ludvigsson and Thierry Hupond on the front.

Those two riders combined forces to keep the gap at 3.30. With an average speed of more than 48kph, it was a very fast start to the stage and there was no room for recovery for the riders that had hoped for an easy final day.

Etixx-QuickStep start to chase

With 87km to go, Etixx-QuickStep also joined the chase when Carlos Verona hit the front and they quickly brought the gap down to 2.20. However, they had a hard time getting any close to the escapees who worked well together and with 60km to go, the gap was unchanged.

This prompted the two chasing teams to add more firepower as Petr Vakoc (Etixx-QuickStep) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Giant-Alpecin) also came to the fore. That investment paid off and with 45km to go, the gap was only 1.45.

Simion abandons

A small crash that involved the likes of Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida) and Adil Jelloul (Skydive), brought the race to an end for neo-pro Paolo Simion. Moments later, Movistar also started to chase when Giovanni Visconti and Eros Capecchi hit the front.

Boaro did a long sprint to beat Canola and Oss in the final intermediate sprint but now the gap had come down to just 45 seconds. Meanwhile, Sky had also started to chase as Ian Boswell was making a contribution.

Oss attacks

With 20km to go, Oss decided to take off on his own but hard work by Mancebo brought the group back together a few kilometres later. At this time, Boaro had decided to save himself for later and he was no longer contributing to the pace-setting.

For a long time, the gap stayed around 40 seconds but as the lead-out trains started to position themselves, it dropped to 25 seconds with 13km to go. With 7km to go, Canola decided to attack and while Oss managed to join him, the rest of the break was caught.

The lead-out trains from Ag2r and Sky were now lined out on the front of the peloton as the early chasers had finished their work and as Johan Vansummeren (Ag2r) took control, the break was caught with 6.1km to go. Adriano Malori took a brief turn for Movistar but inside the final 5km, it was Matteo Tosatto (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Damien Gaudin (Ag2r) who kept the pace high. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) took a brief turn before Etixx-QuickStep kicked into action and delivered Cavendish to the win.