Elia Viviani insists he will go “full gas” at Saturday’s time trial on Stage 4 of the Abu Dhabi Tour, even though the Italian sprinter’s hopes of still being in the red leader’s jersey come Sunday are out of his hands.
The Quick-Step Floors rider maintained his grip on the overall lead at the Tour after finishing fourth behind winner Phil Bauhaus in a thrilling sprint battle on Stage 3 on Friday.
The 29-year-old comes into Saturday’s penultimate stage – a 12.6km circuit of Al Maryah and Al Reem Island – three seconds ahead of UAE Team Emirates’ Alexander Kristoff and Stage 3 winner Bauhaus (Team Sunweb).
“The goal was to win the stage but we finished fourth,” said Stage 2 victor Viviani.
“But this season I haven’t finished outside the top five in sprints. When you are like that the wins come. We already have five wins and we want to win always, but you can’t win always.
“It’s cool to be in the red jersey tomorrow. I do full gas for sure to respect the leader’s jersey. I am the leader, I need to do this.
“Plus we are in the first few weeks of the season so it all helps to build for the future and races coming up. The European season starts in the next few weeks and I want to be ready so tomorrow I go full gas.”
Stage 3 featured another flat day of racing with four riders escaping early. Marco Maronese (Bardiani CSF), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) and Sam Brand (Novo Nordisk), who enjoyed a maximum advantage of a little under three minutes.
As in previous days, the peloton enjoyed a relaxed start to the day before beginning to reel the break in with around 70km remaining.
From there the pace was controlled by a combination of the sprinters’ teams as the peloton rolled towards the bunch sprint at Big Flag, opposite Marina Mall.
The pace steadily ramped up through the final 10km without any one team being able to take control, before Movistar and Sunweb started to seize the front with three kilometres remaining.
Elia Viviani holds a three-second advantage in the GC standings.
Movistar’s bid to set up Jose Joaquin Rojas for the sprint was hijacked by Quick-Step who moved to the front in a bid to set up Viviani for a second successive triumph.
He was in perfect position but Bauhaus surged out of his wheel to throw his bike across the line as Marcel Kittel somehow found a route down the left-hand side of the road, coming fast but not fast enough to deny Bauhaus.
“It was a real battle on the line,” added Viviani.
“Saba (Fabio Sabatini) left me with 150m to go so it was a short sprint but with the headwind it’s never easy. It was a big show for the fans but I finished fourth, that’s it. The Germans did a good sprint.”
Viviani had earlier won one of the stage’s intermediate sprints, something the big names rarely get involved in, but the former Team Sky rider revealed he wants to maintain the green points jersey as it is expected the sprinters will fall off the pace with the time trial and Sunday’s ascent up Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain.
“It was a good opportunity to get points for the green jersey as we have the time trial tomorrow and then the climb so I really want to do the sprint for the green jersey at the end of the Tour and be the leader at the end of the stage,” added Viviani, who feels the time trial will be just a little too long for him to have a say.
“The 12km time trial will be a good way to get in better shape, but I think it’s maybe 3km too long to defend the jersey. Eight kilometres would be a good length to defend the jersey, I expect (Tom) Dumoulin or (Danny) Van Poppel will be favourites. I will try and end the weekend in the best way.”
