Mark Cavendish earns revenge over Elia Viviani for Olympic heartache

Abu Dhabi: It may not have been Rio 2016, but revenge was still pretty sweet for Mark Cavendish after he won the second stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour to secure the overall lead of the event on Friday afternoon.

Cavendish edged the man who beat him to omnium gold at the Olympics, Elia Viviani, in a thrilling sprint finish to triumph in a time of two hours, 32 minutes and 21 seconds — and then produced a beaming smile and a joyful wag of the finger.

What Team Sky’s Viviani — who finished ahead of his compatriot Andrea Guardini — made of this potentially inflammatory gesture is anybody’s guess, though.

In the omnium final, the Italian secured gold despite having been taken out earlier in the race by Cavendish in a horrific crash which left the Korean rider Sanghoon Park hospitalised and in a neck brace.

But Cavendish later bristled at the suggestion that there was any bad blood between him and Viviani, insisting: “I really like Elia and have massive respect for him. I think he’s a great rider.”

And like all successful sportsmen, the 31-year-old Team Dimension Data rider remembers his failures just as much as his myriad triumphs — perhaps even more so.

Cavendish’s laconic response before the capital’s second annual showpiece started on Thursday certainly betrayed this when he said “gold would have been nice” at the Olympics and the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha last Sunday.

Nevermind the fact that the Abu Dhabi Tour ambassador had also won four stages of the Tour de France in the summer and the Madison track world title with Sir Bradley Wiggins, then.

But on Friday, the man known as ‘the Manx Missile’ was happy to revel in the undiluted thrill of victory, given that he holds a four-minute lead at the halfway stage of the race.

“I’m happy with that,” he said after the 115-kilometre Nation Towers Stage, the shortest of the four stages, which started at Emirates Palace and finished at Al Marina on the Corniche. “We wanted to win today. I felt good. It was a very chaotic sprint in which I lost my lead out in the second last corner. I thought ‘that’s it’, but we got back on.

“It was incredible to pass through all the iconic sites of Abu Dhabi. It was impressive to see the buildings such as [the Shaikh Zayed] Grand Mosque, and the towers, and to finish in Al Marina.”

Meanwhile, stage one winner Giacomo Nizzolo is second overall after finishing sixth on Friday, while the Belgian Jens Keukeleire is third.

The riders next head to the 150-kilometre mountain stage from Al Ain to Jebel Hafeet on Saturday, starting from 1.10pm.

And given that Cavendish’s strength lies in sprinting, he is unlikely to prosper and may have to wait for Sunday’s final stage at Yas Marina Circuit to enjoy further glory.

For now, however, he can reflect on having expunged some of the hurt of that unforgettable night in Rio.

RESULTS

Abu Dhabi Tour 2016, stage two: Abu Dhabi to Abu Dhabi (Al Marina), 115km

1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data in 2-32-21

2. Elia Viviani (ITA) Team Sky

3. Andrea Guardini (ITA) Astana

4. Jakub Mareczko (ITA) Wilier-Southeast

5. Jean-Pierre Drucker (LUX) BMC Racing

6. Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA) Trek-Segafredo

7. Chris Latham (GBR) Team Wiggins

8. Michael Kolar (SVK) Tinkoff

9. Steele Von Hoff (AUS) One Pro Cycling