Marcel Kittel (QuickStep Floors) stamped his authority on the Dubai Tour by winning the final stage, his third of the race, and the overall title, on Saturday.
The German edged out Elia Viviani (Team Sky) and Riccardo Minali (Astana Pro Team) in the finale, with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) suffering a mechanical in the sprint and fading to fourth. The British rider told reporters at the finish that his gears jumped just as he was launching his sprint.
Kittel’s early form has seen him win all but one stage of this year’s race and seal his second consecutive title in Dubai. Despite not featuring in the sprint finish, Dylan Groenewegen (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) did enough to secure second overall in the race.
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“I'm extremely proud of what I achieved today: my second Dubai Tour overall in a row, my 75th career victory," Kittel said at the finish.
"When I came back to Dubai, I thought this is a nice race, it's a goal for me, but I didn't think it would go so well. The team did a really god job. It's a very nice way to start the season. It was a short stage after the cancellation of stage 4 and we tried to control the race from the very beginning. The breakaway wasn't too big so it went very well for us. At the end, it didn't go exactly according to the plan because Fabio Sabatini's chain fell off. He was supposed to be my last lead out man, so I had to go by myself but at the end I was well positioned, so I could do my sprint as I wanted to."
Kittel was always the favourite to win the GC battle heading into the final flat stage of the race. Once again his QuickStep patrolled the front of the peloton after an early break of Floris Gerts (BMC), Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida), Dimitry Gruzdev (Astana), and Matteo Bono (UAE -Abu Dhabi) moved clear.
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