Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Tour ambassador Mark Cavendish timed his sprint to perfection and provided his team Dimension Data a sensational victory in a crash-marred 188km stage one of the Word Tour edition at Madinat Zayed on Thursday.
The Briton staved off the challenge from Germany’s Andre Greipel of Lotto Soudal and Niccolo Bonifazio of Bahrain-Merida at the tape after Dubai Tour winner and sprint rival Marcel Kittel of Quickstep Floors and Caleb Ewan of Orica-Scott crashed out just a kilometre from the finish.
An elated ‘Cav’ was seen hugging his teammates after the key win which saw him don the red jersey for being the race leader along with the green point’s jersey.
It has to be recalled that Cavendish had finished third in the same stage four months ago and he revealed that they did thorough homework and chalked out a perfect strategy which clicked.
“I can’t fault anyone in the team — had I lost it, it would have been only my fault. It was the same finish as last year and I was only third then, with us having made some mistakes. We went through what we did wrong last year, tried to do the complete opposite and that’s what happened,” said a jubilant Cavendish, who won three stages in the last Abu Dhabi Tour.
The 188km stage 1, starting from Baynounah Educational Complex, saw six riders Manuele Mori (UAE Team Emirates), Artur Ershov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), David Lozano (Novo Nordisk), Artyom Zakharov (Astana), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) and Kazushige Kuboki (Nippo-Vini Fantini) breakaway early.
They enjoyed a lead of 5 minutes by 33km over the chasing peloton led by Dimension Data, Quick-Step Floors and Bora-Hansgrohe riders.
The first intermediate sprint after 57.2km at Liwa, the region surrounded by beautiful sand dunes and date palm plantation, was clinched by Team UAE Emirates’ Italian rider Mori. With 100km to go the six leading riders’ lead over the peloton was reduced to 3’45”. Then Astana suffered a setback with their rider Pello Bilbao going down hard. In the second intermediate sprint after 126.7km at Liwa, Mori went wheel to wheel with compatriot Zakharov before taking the win and some crucial points.
The breakaway pack was then reduced to three riders Zakharov, Kuboki and Mori and they enjoyed a lead of 1’03” from the peloton comprising bigwigs Alberto Contador, Cavendish, Quintana and Kittel with 33km to the finish.
Kuboki felt his job was done and he slowed down to be caught by the chasing pack with 17km remaining. The other two — Mori and Zakharov — also dropped out with 16.2km remaining. Then 10km to go and no team was ready to give the charge and the cyclists were covering the entire stretch of road.
With 4.7km to go, Quick-Step Floors’ riders pushed in front and there was a crash involving Contador, who quickly got back onto the bike — but his team was left to do a lot of catching up. Contador made it back to the group with 3km to go but clearly his chances were sealed and it was only about doing damage control on time.
Towards the finish with Kittel crashing, Bonifazio went far too early and Cavendish had all the time in the world to stay on his wheel and then power his way to the front to hold off any late charge from Greipel. Finishing fourth was UAE Team Emirates’ Italian rider Simone Consonni, while his compatriot Elia Viviani of Team Sky was fifth.
Results Stage one top 10
1. Mark Cavendish, Team Dimension Data, in 4:37:06
2. André Greipel, Lotto Soudal, at 00
3. Niccolo’ Bonifazio, Bahrain — Merida, at: 00
4. Simone Consonni, UAE TEAM Emirates, at: 00
5. Elia Viviani, Team Sky, at: 00
6. Roger Kluge, Orica — Scott, at: 00
7. Alexander Porsev, Gazprom — Rusvelo, at: 00
8. Matteo Pelucchi, Bora — Hansgrohe, at: 00
9. Nicola Ruffoni, Brd, at: 00
10. Eduard Michael Grosu, Nippo — Vini Fantini, at: 00
General Classification after stage 1
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) Dimension Data 4:37:06
2. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:00:04
3. Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:06
Stage 2 — 153km Nation Towers Stage
The second stage runs mostly in the city of Abu Dhabi. After the start the race goes through Reem Island, then along the Abu Dhabi Corniche for the first time before turning south on wide, straight boulevards. Here the route passes close to the Shaikh Zayed Mosque and reaches Shakhbout City — site of the first Intermediate Sprint, with several roundabouts on the course — before riding through Al Shahama and Al Bahya — for the second Intermediate Sprint — then returning to Yas Island. The final part of the stage is raced on the Shaikh Bin Zayed Highway towards the Abu Dhabi Corniche and the finish line. The entire route is on wide boulevards with “cat’s eyes” road reflectors constantly dividing the lanes. The final 5km are on increasingly large roads with large semi-curves leading to the straight finish on asphalt.
