Despite a strong fight on the final stage of the Dubai Tour to the Burj Khalifa, Team Giant-Alpecin could do little in the final sprint to defend the overall race lead of John Degenkolb.

The stage came down to a bunch sprint as expected and after a hard day of riding on the front of the peloton the team’s lead-out faded in the final kilometres as the speeds continued to rise. Mark Cavendish (Etixx – QuickStep) proved fastest for the second time this race and with just a four second deficit going into the stage the time bonuses on the line were enough for his to reassume the overall race lead.

The majority of the 128km stage was dominated by a break of five riders who fought hard until the final kilometres to stay clear but with a peloton once again intent on a bunch sprint their chances were slim.

The Team Giant-Alpecin jerseys were prominent on the front of the peloton respecting the blue leader’s jersey on Degenkolb’s shoulders but come the final kilometres the lead-out didn’t go to plan and the riders were swamped on the wrong side of the road. With the peloton lined out, moving up was tough and Degenkolb had to fight for what he could in the finishing sprint, eventually coming over the line in ninth. Picking up no bonus seconds, he dropped down to second overall.

Road captain Roy Curvers said after the race: “When you have ten sprint stages you have a few where it goes as planned – like yesterday. There will be more stages where you have to improvise to get your sprinter into position to sprint at least, and then in one of ten you get it wrong and come too late – that was today.

“We came here for a stage win and to introduce some new guys to the sprint formation and for these things we can be satisfied. We got a stage win, and learned and improved. But there’s a bitter feeling when you lose the leader’s jersey on the last day in a bunch sprint where we didn’t manage to get John in position to sprint. We will continue to learn from today and keep improving as we move on and evaluate our performance.”

"I can not be happy," Degenkolb told Tuttobiciweb. "I have barely even done the sprint because I was too far back. We could not compete with the train of the Belgian team, there is little to complain about. We totally messed up the sprint. That said, however, I am delighted with the success of yesterday and confident for the rest of the season."