Abu Dhabi Tour: UAE Team Emirates rider Rui Costa wins Al Maryah Island Stage 3
Matt Jones
19:28 25/02/2017
Matt Jones
19:28 25/02/2017
The win was a watershed moment for his team, UAE Team Emirates, who claimed a home triumph barely two months after being unveiled as the 18th and last team to enter the UCI WorldTour.
The 30-year-old broke with 6km to go, halfway up the grueling climb that signals the end of Stage 3.
Russian rider Zakarin challenged him but it was the failure of a bunch of high-profile stars that failed to catch the leaders that caught the attention, with Nairo Quintana, Fabio Aru and Vincenzo Nibali all trailing a minute or so behind.
Costa held off the challenge of Zakarin, finishing in a time of 4:34:08, seconds ahead of the Russian, while Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin gave chase but was 10 seconds back in third.
The final stage is entirely on Yas Island. There are 26 laps of the Yas Marina circuit, each of 5.5km with three Intermediate Sprints as we count down to the finale. The first Intermediate Sprint is on lap 11 with 15 laps to go, the second at 10 laps to go and the last Intermediate Sprint comes with just five laps to go.
In 2015, during the Yas Island Stage, for the first time ever in a men’s professional road race, live on-board bike camera footage was made available and used for live television race coverage.