UnitedHealthcare’s Davide Frattini spent stage 3 of the Dubai Tour in the leader of the sprint classification’s jersey, and was fourth overall but lost his chance at the race's final podium on the steep climb to Hatta Dam on Friday. Frattini, however, passed the jersey along to teammate Alessandro Bazzana, wh0, after making the day's breakaway, picked up the intermediate sprint points and moved into fifth overall.

“It's pretty cool to get this jersey, it was very similar to the Italian flag too,” Frattini told Cyclingnews after standing on the podium on stage 2.

“This is my first race after spending the winter in the freezing Canadian wonderland,” he said, of the ice and snow of his home in Ontario. “It's a shock to the system and to the body because it's cold up there and hot here in Dubai. But I did some good winter training, mixing things up with swimming and cross-country skiing. It's an alternative way of doing things but it works well.”

Frattini was only 11 seconds behind race leader Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick-Step) and had a five-second advantage on the rest of the peloton, which gave him a shot at overall victory, but the race intensified during stage 3 on the steep climb to the finish line at Hatta Dam. Although Frattini was taken out of contention for the podium, finishing in the gruppetto at 8:38, his extraordinary efforts helped to set up Bazzana and fellow Italian teammate Marco Canola slide into the top 10 overall.

"It was my job, along with Baz and Federico Zurlo to be in the breakaways at this race," he added after stage 3. "When I got the sprint jersey, it was our job to defend it and keep it within our team. It's been nice to share the workload of covering moves with three teammates during the first three stages. Baz is faster than me, so in the end, it works out very well for us that he has the sprint jersey now."

Unfortunately, the 2014 season will not include riding the Giro d'Italia for the United Health Care team as the  Giro d'Italia organiser RCS Sport opted to give the international wildcard to the Polish CCC Sprandi, citing commercial and territorial reasons.

“The team is growing slowly and in the right direction. If it's not this year, then maybe it will be next year,” he said of the Giro d'Italia. “We got in Il Lombardia and we're here, so we'll take that for now.