Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) again proved his excellent form when he overcame the steep climbs and took another convincing win in the sprint on the queen stage. The big German has a chance of making it a clean sweep of the road stages in tomorrow's final stage and he could not have wished a better course. The flat, fast stage is held in downtown Dubai and it would be a huge surprise if the inaugural Dubai Tour doesn't come down to a big sprint finish in front of the Burj Khalifa. Starting at 10.45 CET, you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

The course

The riders will be back in the city for the final stage which is again a very short one at just 123km. Known as The Old Dubai Stage, it will cross the old part of the city, passing alongside two of the most iconic Dubai buildings: the Burj Al Arab and the Burj Khalifa, the tallest skyscraper in the World at 830 metres. The entire stage will take place in the city centre and like many other stage races, the final day will offer a criterium-like race that is guaranteed to end in a bunch sprint.

From the start, the riders will head onto a small loop in the northern part of the city before they get onto the coastal road. From there, they will start a sinuous route system that will mostly use the same roads on a rectangular circuit along the coast. With 57.8km to go, they reach the coastal Jumeirah Road and they will now do two laps that will see them head all the way down the coast to the Burj Al Arab and make a U-turn to go all the way back before making another U-turn to do it all again. On both laps, there will be an intermediate sprint at the Jumeirah Beach Park, 51.5km and 23.3km from the finish respectively.

With 15.5km to go, the riders reach the Burj Al Arab for the last time and 10km further down the road, they turn right to leave the sea. From there, they will negotiate three 90-degree corners on completely flat roads, with the last one leading onto the slightly bending 800m finishing straight in front of the Burj Khalifa. The stage will be held at an altitude between 0 and 11m, meaning that there will be no climbing at all to bother with. Instead, the challenge will be the fast pace and the many corners.

A big bunch sprint in front of the world's tallest building will be the fitting end to 4 days of racing that has showcased both some of cycling's biggest stars and most of Dubai's important tourist attractions.

The weather

The wind had disappeared for today's queen stage which was the only one where the riders were not protected by Dubai's many skyscrapers. Tomorrow they are back in the downtown and there is no reason to fear that the wind will split things up.

It will be the warmest stage of the race as the riders will be greeted by a partly cloudy sky and temperatures that reach a maximum of 23 degrees. Like today, they will be challenged by a moderate wind which comes from a northern direction. This means that the riders will have a cross-tailwind and cross-headwind when they head up and down along the seafront and as the wind will come from the sea, there will be no protection. However, it is unlikely to be strong enough to wreak havoc on the peloton.

Inside the final kilometre, the riders will generally have a tailwind which turns into a crosswind on the bending road to the finish. With few corners forcing the riders to slow down in the finale, this means that we should see a very fast sprint suiting the really powerful riders.

The favourites

As said, the wind may have the right direction to produce some splits but as it wasn't strong enough to do any damage today, it is unlikely to be so tomorrow. As the climatic conditions were the only that could potentially provide some drama, we are likely to be in for a very straightforward sprint stage, with an early breakaway taking some time in the spotlight before the sprint teams bring things back together.

BMC will probably do the bulk of the work as they have done the past two days, with Giant-Shimano and Omega Pharma-Quick Step having shown little desire to help them. However, bigger time gaps have now opened up and so they can allow a non-dangerous break to stay away. There is no chance that the two mighty sprint teams will miss this opportunity though and if it is needed, we will see Julien Vermote and Cheng Ji take their usual position on the front to set up a sprint finish.

After today's superior showing by Marcel Kittel, it is hard not to pick him as the favourite like we have already done it the past two days. The German is clearly in excellent condition these days and he is currently unrivaled in the sprints.

We haven't yet had the chance to see a sprint between Kittel and Mark Cavendish. Yesterday, Omega Pharma-Quick Step's lead-out train got swamped and Cavendish never started to sprint. Today he probably never recovered from the climbs as he never got back to the front despite his team doing some solid pace-setting in the end.

We have long claimed Kittel to be the fastest sprinter in the world and even though he is yet to face Cavendish in a direct duel, it is hard to imagine Cavendish beating Kittel  in this kind of stage. A short, flat stage is clearly in Kittel's advantage and he will only benefit from the tailwind and the lack of corners in the finale which means that he has plenty of time to get up to speed while Cavendish will not have the same kind of aerodynamic advantage that he would have in a headwind sprint.

Cavendish's best chance is to start his sprint from a better position than his direct rival but his new lead-out train is clearly not dialed in yet. At the same time, it seems that Tony Martin who would be responsible for stringing the peloton out in the finale, is still some way shy of his best. It was the lack of firepower from the riders preceding Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Renshaw which ruined the sprint on the second stage.

On the other hand, Kittel is assisted by his two usual lead-out men Koen De Kort and Tom Veelers. On Thursday, the team took a calculated risk by using their riders up a bit too early to make sure that Kittel was well-positioned when they hit the crosswinds. This meant that he had to do the finale on his own but tomorrow  that kind of experiments will not be necessary. With Ramon Sinkeldam, Reinhardt Van Rensburg and Bart De Backer also on hand, it is hard to imagine that Kittel will not be delivered perfectly and he is doubtlessly the man to beat.

However, no one can rule out a win for Cavendish. Looking at the individual riders, his lead-out train is the strongest and if they manage to get things right, he could benefit from a better position - and his undeniably fast sprint - to get his first win of the season.

It is hard to imagine that the winner will not be either Kittel or Cavendish but if anyone has to beat them, it must be Peter Sagan. The Slovakian is certainly not the as fast as his rivals but he is a master when it comes to positioning. With Fabio Sabatini coming back from injury, he will rely on Daniele Ratto to get him to the front and from there he will fend for himself. However, this kind of easy stage is not his forte and a top 3 finish is probably the maximum achievable.

Until now, we have been full of praise for Giacomo Nizzolo and his Trek team have been so too. The team were so confident in their fast finisher that they joined BMC in the pace-setting in the first part of today's stage but surprisingly the Italian was unable to keep up with the best on the slopes.

However, Nizzolo is an excellent sprinter and he has one of the best lead-out trains at his disposal. On Thursday the screwed things up a bit when Fabian Cancellara had to make a very late surge to bring Nizzolo back into position and the Swiss simply killed his sprinter in the process, meaning that the Italian faded back into 5th. However, the team is strong enough to play a dominant role in the finale and the combination of Cancellara, Eugenio Alafaci and Danilo Hondo could be enough to give him a spot on the podium.

One of the sprinters who excel in this kind of easy stages, is Roberto Ferrari. The Italian has a very fast acceleration and handles the positioning aspect better than most. It is testament to that ability that he was the rider positioned on Kittel's wheel in Thursday's sprint. He has strong support from Filippo Pozzato, Andrea Palini and Davide Cimolai and the team is fully dedicated to their fast finisher. If they manage to position him well, we wouldn't be surprised to see him on the podium.

Juan Jose Lobato is riding his second race for Movistar and after a very disappointing showing, he is clearly in excellent condition in Dubai. He was one of only very few sprinters to survive today's climbing and he positioned himself well on Kittel's wheel to take 2nd. On Thursday, he had done equally well in the build-up to the sprint and came away with 4th place. Those kind of results have earned him a lot of confidence from his team which have a lot of big motors on their roster. With Enrique Sanz as the final lead-out man, it wouldn't be surprising to again see him finish near the top.

Until now, we have shown Tyler Farrar a bit of confidence but he hasn't lived up to our expectations. Today he missed out on another opportunity when he finished with the second big group. However, he remains one of the few select sprinters who has the speed to finish on the podium in a stage like this and so we will give him the joker role for tomorrow. With Raymond Kreder as his final lead-out man and dedicated support from Ramunas Navardauskas, he has one of the strongest teams at his disposal. They have been riding as a solid unit in the first few stages and Farrar will be eager to get it right in his last sprint before leaving Dubai.

CyclingQuotes' stage winner pick: Marcel Kittel

Other winner candidates: Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan

Outsider: Giacomo Nizzolo, Roberto Ferrari, Juan Jose Lobato

Joker: Tyler Farrar