Dubai: Team Etixx-Quick Step rider Mark Cavendish was “simply happy” to wear the leader’s blue jersey at the end of first stage of the Dubai Tour 2015 on Wednesday.
Watched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai near the Union Flag House, Cavendish kept off Astana Pro Team’s Andrea Guardini at the final sprint to finish in a time of 3 hours 24.50 minutes and win the opening stage and collect maximum 20 points and wear the jersey of the overall race leader.
“You can feel the motivation and the desire to go out as a unit and win. It’s nice to win; I like winning, I make no secret of that fact and I’m super happy to wear the leader’s jersey here at the Dubai Tour,” Cavendish told the media.
“As always, my team showed confidence, they rode incredibly together and to follow Mark (Renshaw) is so nice because he’s so patient. Ideally, I wanted to leave it late because there was a cross headwind at the finish. Sky went early on the left and Renshaw just stayed calm and used them to pick up some speed in the slipstream. Then, when we overtook them, he (Renshaw) started to lead out and I felt (Ben) Swift go on my left and I had to go then,” Cavendish explained.
Challenged by a chasing pack including Team Sky’s Elia Viviani, Team Katusha’s Alexander Porsev and Movistar Team’s Juan Jose Lobato, the 29-year-old Etixx-Quick Step leader came up with an extra push at the end to notch his first-ever stage win in Dubai to add to his one win at last week’s Tour de San Luis in Argentina.
Guardini finished second followed by Viviani, Porsev and Lobato to complete the top-five positions.
Saeed Hareb, Chairman, Organising Committee and General Secretary, Dubai Sports Council (DSC) presented the CBD-sponsored Blue jersey to Cavendish for being the overall leader.
Cavendish had a relatively quiet 2014 where he assimilated 11 wins after going winless in his season-opening Dubai Tour and then deciding not to compete in Giro d’Italia. However, he came strong winning four stages and the points classification at the Presidential Tour of Turkey.
With assistance of a 13kph south-east breeze, the front pack of Nicolas Lefrancois (Team Novo Nordisk), United Healthcare Pro Cycling’s Alessandro Bazzana, Bardiani CSF’s Enrico Battaglin and Skydive Dubai’s new Russian recruit Vladimir Gusev were nearly two minutes clear of the chasing peloton.
The breakaway group was joined before the first sprint near the Maktoum International Airport by Spanish rider Rafael Ferri Valls of the Lampre-Merida team. With 23km left, the peloton overtook the top five riders as they headed towards the final four loops on Jumeirah Beach road.
United Healthcare Pro Cycling rider and early leader Bazzana claimed the first intermediate sprint stage held along the Expo 2020 site off Jebel Ali while Team Sky youngster Ben Swift lived up to his name to take the second sprint on the third 8.2km loop along the Jumeirah Beach Road.
Stage Two — called the Nakheel Stage — will be flagged off on Thursday at 10.55am from DIMC and take a larger detour eastward outside of the city and return to finish after 187km near The Atlantis Hotel on The Palm for yet another bunch sprint.
