Nicolas Roche leads the way up the final climb though he had to settled for second behind Astana's Tanel Kangert.
By Brian Canty
In one of his final races with Team Sky, Ireland’s Nicolas Roche delivered a stellar performance to finish second on the penultimate stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour this afternoon, Saturday.
The reigning national road and time-trial champion was only bettered by Estonia’s Tanel Kangert of the Astana Pro Team who also took over as leader of the general classification.
Both riders had broken away from a select group on the approach to the summit finish at Jabel Hafeet.
But Kangert accelerated away from Roche in the final kilometres and crossed the line with 17 seconds to spare.
And with time bonifications factored in it means Roche is 21 seconds down overall going into tomorrow’s concluding stage.
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Irish rider Michael O'Loughlin, in his first year out of the juniors, in the breakaway and just behind Olympic champion and Tour de France yellow jersey from this year Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing.
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Earlier on in the day, Michael O’Loughlin showed he wasn’t going to be overawed by the big names in world cycling.
He managed to escape in a break of four riders that included Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), Marco Coledan (Trek-Segafredo) and Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom-Rusvelo).
They pulled out a maximum lead of over five minutes on the bunch before crosswinds caused a stirring of action in the bunch behind, with Team Sky leading the chase.
O’Loughlin eventually crossed the line in a large group over 12 minutes down and is a fine 35th overall, some 12:27 off the race lead.
At 19-years-old and incredibly in his first year out of the juniors, his aggression and ability to stay out front is an excellent sign.
Tomorrow’s final stage is a pan-flat 143 kilometre stage starting and finishing in Abu Dhabi that is guaranteed to end in a bunch sprint where Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Tref-Segafredo) will be looking for their second stage win of the race.
Stage 3: Al Ain - Jebel Hafeet (150km)
1 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team 3:31:31
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:00:17
3 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data 0:00:33
4 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - Merida
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team 0:00:50
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
7 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:52
8 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:01:19
9 Martijn Tusveld (Ned) Giant Alpecin 0:01:28
10 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff Team
General Classification
1 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team 9:19:44
2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:00:21
3 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - Merida 0:00:43
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:00
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team
6 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:02
7 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:01:29
8 Martijn Tusveld (Ned) Giant Alpecin 0:01:38
9 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar
10 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff Team
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