Dubai: Italian Team Sky rider Elia Viviani believes he can draw a lot of confidence from Thursday’s stage two victory and get better over the final two days of Dubai Tour 2015.
Viviani lurked in the pack and made his move over the final 150 metres to edge out Britain’s overall leader Mark Cavendish in front of the iconic Atlantis, The Palm, in the second stage of the four-day event.
Despite that “slight disappointment”, Cavendish held on to the blue jersey (overall leader on time) and the red jersey (on points) for the second day.
With Viviani and Cavendish filling the top two spots, another Italian, Astana Pro Team’s Andrea Guardini, came in third, Russian Team Katusha rider Alexander Porsev fourth and Skydive Dubai’s Andrea Palini fifth.
Italian rider Davide Frattini, of the United Healthcare Pro Cycling team, claimed the UAE flag jersey for intermediate sprints from overnight leader Ben Swift, while the white jersey for best young rider remained with Bardiani CSF team’s Paolo Simion.
Viviani’s first win of the season — ahead of an accomplished rider like Cavendish — gave the 25-year-old huge satisfaction.
“My first year with this new team and I can definitely feed off the confidence I can take from this win for the rest of the season,” the resident of Isola della Scala, Verona, told Gulf News.
“Things got pretty crazy towards the end, so I just stuck to the middle to avoid any sort of traffic and the finish line was all I could see.
“This is a new team and a new start for me personally. I am happy with the support I received from the other members. The big focus now will be to see how much we can stretch for the next two days and gain as much as we can from this early-season preparation.”
Cavendish was disappointed not to win again but added: “I am happy with my power output and this bodes well for me and the team for the rest of the season.”
Known as the ‘Nakheel Stage’, Thursday’s route saw a last-minute extension of three kilometres from its original 187km to circumvent ongoing roadworks.
Saeed Hareb, chairman of the event’s organising committee and general secretary of the Dubai Sports Council, presented the jerseys to the stage winners along with Mohammad Al Jallaf from main sponsors Commercial Bank of Dubai.
Friday’s third stage — a medium mountain stage — will have a 10.20am start from race headquarters at Dubai International Marine Club. This stage is most likely to disrupt the procession of bunch sprints as it goes through the Hajjar Mountain range bordering Oman and ends at the top of the Hatta Dam.
