Tanel Kangert takes Abu Dhabi Tour lead with stage three win

Tanel Kangert is poised to win the 2016 Abu Dhabi Tour

Estonia's Tanel Kangert took the overall lead of the Abu Dhabi Tour by climbing to victory on stage three's summit finish on Jebel Hafeet.

The Astana rider broke away from an elite front group alongside Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) with 6km of the 10.8km climb remaining, but moved into a lone lead with 3.2km to go and hung on to beat the Irishman to victory by 17 seconds.

Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data) finished 33 seconds down in third, while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - neither of whom expected to challenge for victory - were fifth and sixth respectively.

Nicolas Roche was unable to keep pace with Kangert

After previous leader Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) was dropped earlier in the climb, Kangert moves to the top of the general classification and opens up leads of 21 seconds over second-placed Roche and 43 seconds over third-placed Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida), who was fourth on the day.

Kangert now only has to avoid crashing on Sunday's race-ending sprint stage on the Yas Marina F1 circuit to secure overall victory in the second edition of the race.

Alberto Contador (right) and Vincenzo Nibali climb Jebel Hafeet

He said: "We knew before the start we had two climbers here, Vincenzo and myself. If I had a good day, I could be also there.

"Vincenzo told me yesterday that I would have a chance, but I also needed to have the legs to do that.

"Nicolas Roche was a bit more tired than I was. I was afraid of the headwind in the finale, but luckily, the wind direction changed and there was nothing to stop me."

Stage three result

1 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana, 3:31:31
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +17sec
3 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data, +33
4 Diego Ulissi (Ita) lampre-Merida, same time
5 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +50
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +st
7 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo, +52
8 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:19
9 Martijn Tusveld (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +1:28
10 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff, st

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General classification 

1 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana, 9:19:44
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +21sec
3 Diego Ulissi (Ita) lampre-Merida, +43
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +1:00
5 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +same time
6 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo, +1:02
7 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:29
8 Martijn Tusveld (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +1:38
9 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar, st
10 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff, st

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