Yesterday’s opening stage of the Dubai Tour took the riders from the Dubai International Marine Club to Union House Flag for a distance of 145 kilometres. The stage was completely flat, so was expected to be contested by the sprinters.
Apart from Mark Cavendish, amongst the other sprinters taking part are the Team Sky duo of Ben Swift and Elia Viviani, Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare), Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar), Luka Mezgec (Giant-Alpecin) and Andrea Guardini (Astana).
The race continues for three more days with the big shake up in GC expected to happen on the climb to the finish of Stage 3 at Hatta Dam. Amongst the big names expected to contest for the overall win are last year’s Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
Here are the last kilometres of the opening stage.
