BMC's Taylor Phinney won the Tour of Dubai on a day when Marcel Kittel made it a hat-trick of wins in this race when he took victory on the final stage.
The final stage of this 2.1 race in its first ever running, was a 123km stage from Dubai to the Burj Khalifa and on another warm day, three riders in Francesco Mancebo of Skydive Dubai, Paolo De Negri of Vini Fantini-Nippo and Jay McCarthy of Tinkoff Saxo, took a lead of a couple of minutes of the peloton including race leader Taylor Phinney and Points leader Marcel Kittel who was looking for a hat-trick of wins.
The first sprint of the day with just over 50kms to go saw Sprints leader Willie Smit of Vini Fantini-Nippo take a couple of minor points to confirm his jersey, ninety seconds after Mancebo had taken the sprint.
The trio went into the final thirty kilometres with a lead of just over a minute.
At speeds of 46kmh, Mancebo lept ahead to take the final sprint of the race to go second in the sprint jersey competition with 22kms to go.
De Negri, Mancebo and McCarty went into the final twenty kilometres just twenty four seconds ahead of the peloton which was being controlled by BMC. who were able to catch the three escapers with 12.5kms remaining.
Inside the final five kilometres, there was a crash and Peter Sagan went down, meaning that he was not involved in the race to the line which had Astana, Katusha and Lampre on the front, with Mark Cavendish in a handy place.
Cannondale and Omega Pharma Quick Step were leading going into the final kilometre after a right hand turn, watched by former footballer Diego Maradona.
Marcel Kittel was now in prime position with Cavendish hitting a plastic bollard and the German went with 250m to go to take the stage in 2.41.12 ahead of Renshaw, Guardini, Ferrari and Porsev.
Taylor Phinney finished safely in the bunch and took the overall victory of the blue jersey designed by Versace, ahead of British rider Steve Cummings by fifteen seconds.
Marcel Kittel told Daniel Lloyd: " I am super happy but I am totally dead now. it was amazing how I was brought back to the front and I was happy to take the win. I am so happy that I can start 2014 in good form."
Taylor Phinney told Daniel Lloyd "Everyday felt like my race to lose. After performing well yesterday, I knew i would be coming home with the win. I am so happy that we have been able to do that.
"I have invested a lot in this year and i am so happy to have restored my team's belief in me."