Dubai Tour: John Degenkolb takes overall lead from Mark Cavendish after winning stage three

Mark Cavendish will go into Saturday’s final stage of the Dubai Tour four seconds behind John Degenkolb after the German seized the overall race lead with a stunning victory on stage three.

Degenkolb climbed to a surprise two-second win on the short but steep ascent to Hatta Dam, beating pre-race favourite Alejandro Valverde into second place and Juan Jose Lobato into third.

However, Cavendish also far surpassed expectations on the 17 per cent gradient of the climb to finish 17th, just 10 seconds down on Degenkolb, who had started the day 16 seconds adrift of his lead in the general classification.

Degenkolb picked up 10 bonus seconds for the win and consequently relegates Cavendish to second in the standings, but the Manxman's dogged display ensured his chances of overall victory are far from over.

Stage four should end in a bunch sprint and with Cavendish among the favourites to win and more bonus seconds on offer, the race will now go down to the wire.

Degenkolb said: “We’re going to do everything to defend the jersey and bring the jersey home. It’s going to be not easy, but I think we have still a good chance to get some bonus seconds and probably do a good result at the end of the race. I think it’s not impossible.”

Giant prevail

Stage three had looked set to be a shootout between punchy climbers such as Valverde, Joaquim Rodriguez and Philippe Gilbert, but with the final ascent to the finish only several hundred metres long, the sprinters also sensed an opportunity.

Gilbert’s BMC Racing controlled the peloton in the kilometres leading up to Hatta Dam, but then Degekolb’s Giant-Alpecin hit the front at the foot of the climb and their rivals never regained parity.

Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko launched an unsuccessful attack about 400m out, but Degenkolb waited until about 200m remaining before making his own surge and it proved to be the perfect timing.

Valverde came back strongly in the final 100m but was unable to catch the now wilting Degenkolb, whose efforts left him sprawled out on the floor in exhaustion for several minutes.

Degenkolb added: "To be honest, I was expecting [them] to catch me just before the line, but I just didn’t look back. I did a full out sprint and I’m pretty excited about the watts I generated."

Stage three result

1 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, 5:40:40
2 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +2secs
3 Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar, same time
4 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
5 Marco Canola (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
6 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing, st
7 Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, st
8 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, +7
9 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, st
10 Edgar Pinto (Por) Skydive Dubai, st
Selected other
17 Mark Cavendish (GB) Etixx – Quick-Step, +10

General classification

1 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, 12:45:29
2 Mark Cavendish (GB) Etixx – Quick-Step, +4secs
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +6
4 Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar, +8
5 Alessandro Bazzana (Ita) UnitedHealthcare, +11
6 Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, +12
7 Marco Canola (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, same time
8 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing, st
9 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
10 Edgar Pinto (Por) Skydive Dubai, +17