John Degenkolb has taken an impressive win on stage 3 of the Dubai Tour and with it he moves into the overall race lead going into the final stage tomorrow.

Team Giant-Alpecin set Degenkolb up perfectly at the front of the race at the base of the short, sharp final climb to the line at which point Degenkolb gave his all, powering up the final 170m to the finish line distancing some of the strongest climbers in the race.

The stage was punctuated but a breakaway of five riders that moved clear in the early stages of the race. Their advantage was well controlled by the peloton behind with Team Giant-Alpecin looking after each other and saving their efforts for when it mattered in the tough final third of the stage.

Just one rider remained out front in the final 15km and with still a decent sized bunch chasing behind after the day’s first climbs the attacks started to come. With five kilometres to go the race was all back together and Degenkolb still had three riders to support him and keep him in position in Roy Curvers, Chad Haga and Luka Mezgec. They kept calm and waited until the final kilometre before the tight right hand turn into the final hill before making their move.

One by one they pulled through and peeled off, leaving Degenkolb in pole position at the base of the final ramp from which point he put the power down and immediately pulled clear. He didn’t stop until the line, giving his all before falling to the floor showing the pains of his effort.

After calculations of the time bonuses on the finish line and the gaps behind Degenkolb moves into the blue leader’s jersey by four seconds ahead of tomorrow’s flat finish stage which is expected to come down to another bunch sprint. The team will regroup and make a perfect plan to take on the stage and fight to defend the jersey to the end.

“It was a great stage today with a really tough final,” said John after his podium duties. “We tried already in the last two days to go for the win but didn’t have the luck. Today it was important not to waste energy before the end and we did it in a smart way and kept enough riders as planned to put me into a perfect position for the finish.

“The team supported me the whole day. I think we raced pretty smart, and in the end we had still enough guys to put me in the right position in the last 500m. I was lucky that I could go around Luka Mezgec.

"I think I started my sprint with less than 200m to go, but if it’s steep like this, then 150m are like 300 on the flat. I think it was good that I started that early because that also brought me the seconds for the General Classification now. To be honest I was expecting before the line, like, now they’re going to catch me just before the line, but I just didn’t look back, I did a full out sprint, and I’m pretty excited about the watts I generated.” [Q: Did you use the big ring? 53? A: Yes.]

"It’s really a relief to win early in the season - It may be my earliest win ever - and it’s great. If you win you get confidence, and you have not the pressure any more that you have won nothing yet, and it gives a lot of self-confidence for the next races.

“It’s great to start the season with a victory for myself and the team. I would really like to win this race now, it isn’t over yet though. We have to do a perfect stage tomorrow to win the jersey and we will have to be smart but we are ready for this.

“We’re going to do everything to defend the jersey and bring the jersey home. It’s going to be not easy, but I think we have still a good chance to get some bonus seconds and probably do a good result at the end of the race. I think it’s not impossible. Like, it’s a little bit like in Dubai: nothing is impossible.”

Team coach Aike Visbeek added: “We did a recon ride of the final of this stage before the race, going over it very carefully and made a good plan for how best to approach it. We knew that it would be tough but that it was a good stage for John.

“We kept enough guys for the end and they did an amazing job to stay calm and put him in position at the bottom of the climb and from there it was up to John.

“Tomorrow will be tough defending the overall lead and we will need to do a perfect lead-out but the guys have confidence and John is strong after a good few months preparing for the start of the season. His preparation changed slightly with the arrival of his child but he trained well in Cambrils and his shape is improving. There’s still more to build on but this was a good show of what’s to come.”