The team was unable to play a key role on stage 3 of the Abu Dhabi Tour, as Tom Dumoulin and Johannes Fröhlinger crossed the line in 41st and 42nd place. Esteban Chaves won the stage and takes over the GC lead.

The queen stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour started in Al Ain with a flat 129km to challenge the one and only climb of the stage race, the 11km Jebel Hafeet. Two riders took the opportunity to ride in the front and attacked from the start to survive until the final climb. On the Jebel Hafeet the GC fight started.

Wout Poels (Team Sky) was on his way to victory, but crashed in the final corner. Esteban Chavez (Orica GreenEDGE) took advantage of that by winning the stage and taking over the lead in the general classification. Dumoulin was the best finisher for Team Giant-Alpecin in 41st place.

Coach Aike Visbeek explained: “Today we aimed for a result with Tom, but the heat turned out to be too demanding for him on the final climb after the hard period of racing he had. Now we focus on the final sprint chance on tomorrow’s closing stage.“