Phil Bauhaus took the win after a photo finish (Image credit: TDW/GI Cycling)
Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) took some big scalps with a surprise victory on stage 3 of the Abu Dhabi Tour. The German had to be separated from compatriot Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) by a photo finish, but was eventually declared the winner.
That makes it three different winners from the first three stages in Abu Dhabi and Bauhaus’ victory was his and his team’s first of the season. They will be looking for another one on Saturday with Tom Dumoulin and Wilco Kelderman in the time trial.
The third stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour saw four riders make it up the road in the early kilometres. Marco Maronese (Bardiani CSF), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) and Sam Brand (Team Novo Nordisk) jumped clear but were never given much room to manoeuvre. Despite a last-ditch attack from Rolland, the quartet was brought back with 50 kilometres still on the clock.
A flurry of action ended up with Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) crashing, but he was ultimately OK and the peloton eventually sat back and waited for the finale. The big, wide roads gave the sprinters plenty of space to do their thing and it was Bauhaus that came out on top by the Big Flag.
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