Alejandro Valverde snatches Abu Dhabi Tour on the final climb of Jabel Hafeet

Elia Viviani (QuickStep-Floors) takes Green sprinters jersey as Miguel Lopez (Astana) takes the white young riders Jersey

Nokolay Trusov (Gazprom) won the Black intermediate Jersey and Bora-hansgorghe won the team trophy.

The 199 km stage started off with a breakaway including Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac), Mathias Brandle (TrekSegafredo), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), Rudy Barbier (AG2R La Mondiale), Fredrik Frison (Lotto-Soudal), Michael Bresciani (Bardiani CSF), Nicolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo), Nikolay Trusov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Joonas Henttala (Novo Nordisk).

The breakaway built up a lead of nearly 10 minutes in the hot and windy conditions. But by the base of the final climb of Jabeel Hafeet, their lead was down to around 2 minutes.

It was Astanawho put the pressure on at the base of the climb, sweeping up some of the reminants of the breakaway including Zakarin and Brambilla.

In the front group containing the current race leader Rohan Dennis, Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe)  attacked and Valverde followed with a blistering attack out of the Dennis group. The attack fractured the front group and Dennis went out the back with 6 kms ot go.

Meanwhile at the front as Lopez and then Alaphilippe joined Valverde and Formolo at the head of the race.

Formolo was dropped as the pace increased and behind Dennis was losing more time, slipping out of the Red jersey on the climb, despite being paced by teammate, Damiano Caruso.

Rafal Majka attacked and Kelderman followed bridging up to the contenders, missing Fabio Aru, meanwhile, an angry world time trial champion, Tom Dumoulin, suffered another mechanical dashing his chances of a podium finish.

Lopez attacked with 4 kms to go and only Valverde could join him. In the closing 300 metres, Valverde edged in front of Lopez and took the stage and race win.

Rohan Dennis lost 1m 30 secs and dropped to 9th overall, while Kelderman took 2nd place on the podium and Lopez 3rd place.

An amazing win for the Spanaird after a disasterous 2017 season with his horrific crash in the opening Tour de France time trial.

Alejandro Valverde said : "I'm super happy with this victory. Before anything, I just want to thank the whole team for their phenomenal work all week, keeping me well protected leading up to the weekend and today's climb, so I just had to push when it was needed. We were able to get through Saturday's time trial in a good position and it was all about going for the win today.

"This stage was one to keep extreme attention at, on difficult terrain because of the strong winds and that bit of rain which made roads more slippery. Astana did not hesitate to help López out after showing great form in Oman - we knew he was going to be a big contender and it was even more obvious after they started pushing from so far from the end. Midway through the ascent I chose to try and go alone, but I was caught, and later on he tried to make his move - in that situation and considering the rivals we were facing, it was all about finding the spot from which we could go all in, try to bring him back and do our best to win the stage.

"It's our first WorldTour victory of the season, which makes it all the more important against the top guns. This month of February will be really important for our confidence in the remainder of the season. It really helps us work harder for the big races to come. My next competitions? I still don't know where I'll be next - it should be the Volta a Catalunya, but we might add another race before that, like Strade Bianche. We must wait a bit and define that in the next few days."

VIDEO: 2018 Abu Dhabi Tour Final Kilometres

2018 Abu Dhabi Stage 5 Top 10

1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 4:38:47 
2 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team   
3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:15 
4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe   
5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb   
6 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:37 
7 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:47 
8 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:55 
9 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates   
10 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo  

2018 Abu Dhabi Overall General Classification

1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 16:00:01 
2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:17 
3 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:00:29 
4 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:31 
5 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:45 
6 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:13 
7 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:18 
8 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:28 
9 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:29 
10 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:37