Elia Viviani (Sky) proved that he was the best sprinter in the Abu Dhabi Tour when he took a second stage win on the final stage of the four-day race. After a fast race on the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit, he held off Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in a photo finish while Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) finished safely to secure the overall victory.

Going into the Abu Dhabi Tour, most tipped Elia Viviani as the man to beat in the bunch sprints. After all the Italian had shown excellent condition in both the World Championships and the Tour of Britain where he had taken three stage wins.

However, things didn’t work for the Italian in the first sprint stage where he was out of position after Sky had worked for him all day. He could only manage seventh in the bunch kick after having been out of position and this made him hungry for success for stage 2.

Viviani proved his class by taking what looked like an easy sprint win on the second day after working for his teammates in the queen stage, he aimed at the best possible end to his road season in the final flat stage that was held over 20 laps of the 5.5km Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit in Abu Dhabi. Again he confirmed how much progress he has made since joining Sky as he held off Peter Sagan in a photo finish to make it 8 wins in his first year with the British team.

Sky had helped to bring an early break back and things were under control as they entered the final 20km. At that point, Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) were dangling just 25 seconds ahead of the peloton which was led by Mario Costa (Lampre-Merida) and the Orica-GreenEDGE pair of Sam Bewley and Christian Meier.

The trio were working well together and as they crossed the line with three laps to go, the gap was down to 15 seconds. The front duo gave up and with 15km to go, it was all back together.

However, two of the most aggressive riders in the race, Francisco Mancebo (Skydive) and William Clarke (Drapac), still hoped that they could upset the sprinters. As the domestiques wer starting to tire, the gap quickly went out to 10 seconds before Valerio Agnoli started to chase for Astana.

Agnoli managed to bring the gap down to 7 seconds but it had gone back out to 10 seconds at the start of the penultimate lap. Lampre-Merida were now in full control, with Costa leading his teammates Manuele Mori, Diego Ulissi, Davide Cimolai and Sacha Modolo.

Costa was clearly tired so the gap had gone out to 15 seconds when BMC took over with Manuel Quinziato 8km from the finish. However, the main work was still done by Lampre as Manuele Mori and Diego Ulissi started to trade pulls, bringing the gap down to 7 seconds with 7km to go.

An impressive Mancebo managed to press the gap out to 15 seconds but a strong Wiggins rider brought it down to less than 5 seconds at the start of the final lap. Clarke quickly sat up and moments later it was also over for Mancebo.

Rafaa Chtioui took a huge turn for Skydive before the Unitedheathcare blue train came to the fore. They were passed by BMC’s Danilo Wyss before Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) started to work for Andrea Guardini.

Unitedhealthcare came back for one final turn with 2km but that was where Sky kicked into action. Andrew Fenn, Ben Swift and Viviani hit the front and strung things out as they tackled the many late turns and passed the flamme rouge.

Swift had now taken over and he did his best to stay on the front but finally had to surrender. That was too early for Viviani who had to slow down. Instead, Daniele Bennati came to the fore for Tinkoff-Saxo but the pace went further down as he was waiting for Peter Sagan to get to the front.

When the world champion was there, Bennati went full gas in a lead-out, followed by Daniel Oss (BMC), Viviani, Sagan and Guardini. Oss launched a long sprint but was easily passed by Viviani and Sagan who went head to head in a very close sprint. The Italian came out on top in a photo finish while Guardini was far behind in third.

Esteban Chaves finished safely with the bunch and so took his first stage race win as a pro, beating Fabio Aru (Astana) by 16 seconds and Wout Poels (Sky) by 27 seconds. Today’s win allowed Viviani to win the points competition while Chaves was the best young rider. Alessandro Bazzana (Unitedhealthcare) won the sprints jersey.

With the Abu Dhabi Tour done and dusted, the final big stage race has finished. There are now just three races left with participation from the WorldTour teams: Tuesday’s Nationale Sluitiprijs in Belgium and the time trial GP de Nations in France and the Japan Cup next Sunday.

A spectacular finale

After yesterday’s queen stage, the Abu Dhabi Tour ended with a spectacular stage that was made up of 20 laps of the 5.5km Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit. The course was completely flat but as the circuit was pretty technical in the end, cohesion and bike-handling skills were expected to be important in what was tipped to be a bunch sprint finale.

It was another very hot day when the riders gathered for the start but with the race taking place in the early evening, the heat was more bearable. All riders that finished yesterday were present as they rolled out for their neutral ride.

Three riders get clear

For many riders, it was the final race of the year and many were keen to end the season with an aggressive showing. That set the scene for some fast racing at the start until three riders finally managed to get clear.

Lutsenko and Brambilla joined forces with Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and as the peloton slowed down, they managed to push their advantage out to 1.35 as they entered the final 75km. Orica-GreenEDGE quickly came to the fore as Brambilla was a GC threat and it was Bewley and Meier who started to chase. Meanwhile, Vorganov beat Brambilla and Lutsenko in the first intermediate sprint while Elia Viviani moved ahead to pick up the final points on offer.

Two teams lead the chase

Mancebo and Federico Zurlo (Unitedhealthcare) tried to bridge the gap but only managed to get a 10-second advantage before the Orica-GreenEDGE pair brought them back. At this point, Giant-Alpecin also started to chase and for a while Cheng Ji traded pulls with Meier and Bewley, keeping the gap at around 1.45.

Tinkoff-Saxo had plenty of bad luck as Bruno Pires and Sagan both had to work their way back to the peloton after punctures while the situation was kept stable by the three hard-working domestiques. That allowed Brambilla to concentrate on the second sprint which he won ahead of Lutsenko and Vorganov. Again Viviani moved ahead to pick up the final points.

The chase gets organized

With 45km to go, the gap was still 1.45 but now it was time for the sprint teams to come to the fore.  Sebastian Henao (Sky) and Costa started to trade pulls with Meier, Ji and Bewley and yhis had a big impact on the gap. It was only 1.25 with 40km to go and five kilometres later it had dropped to a minute.

The five chasers worked very well together and had brought the gap down to just 45 seconds as they entered the final 30km. Moments later Vorganov beat Lutsenko and Brambilla in the final sprint.

With 25km to go, the gap was 40 seconds and the domestiques were starting to tire as Ji had now disappeared from the front. Nonetheless, Vorganov realized that it was mission impossible and he quickly sat up to wait for the peloton. Moments later Henao also swung off but Sky still came away with the win in the end.