Viviani confident as overall victory at the Dubai Tour comes into reach

Elia Viviani said he will sleep easy before Saturday's final stage of the Dubai Tour, convinced he can defend his two-second overall lead and even celebrate overall victory by winning the final stage in downtown Dubai.

Viviani has won 51 races thanks to his fast finish, but his last stage race victory was back in 2013 when he won the three-day Tour of Elk Grove in the US. Winning the Dubai Tour would lift him to another level as a rider and confirm he is on track for a successful 2018 following his move to Quick-Step Floors in the off season.

Viviani dug deep to finish sixth on the climb up the 17 per cent slopes of Hatta Dam on Friday's stage 4. He managed to distance Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) but finished in the same time of Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana), who are now respectively four and two seconds behind in the overall classification.

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With the Quick-Step Floors team able to protect him and lead him out in the final 132km stage, Viviani is not losing any sleep about somehow missing out on overall victory.

"I can sleep easy before the last stage because I've got a really strong team. It'd be great to secure overall victory by winning the final stage," he said with a hint of bravado.

"We've got the jersey. I'd be more worried for the final sprint if I didn't have such a strong team. Anything can happen, but I know that my team will protect me and lead me out. Now it's all up to me. Fingers crossed that I win."

Doing the math

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