Mark Cavendish sprinted to the win on stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour today and also moved into the overall race leaders jersey, four seconds ahead of previous race leader Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo).
It was a short stage that greeted the peloton on stage 2 with only 115 kilometres to be raced around the city streets of Abu Dhabi.
Once again an early breakaway ramped up the speed of the stage with 6 riders going clear. Cavendish’s team helped ensure the gap didn’t grow too big as they placed Mekseb Debesay on the front of the peloton from early on and the Eritrean helped to control the gap.
Working together with Giant-Alpecin and Trek-Segafredo, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka were able to keep the gap under the 3-minute mark and the leaders were caught with 1km to go.
Team Sky and CCC Sprandi used fresh legs to lead out the sprint but Mark Renshaw did a fantastic job to bring Mark Cavendish into position at 300 metres to go. From there the Manxman could slip onto the wheel of Viviani just before the final right hand bend. Viviani hit out with the line in sight but Cavendish was able to come off his wheel with more speed and surged ahead to take a fine win.
The stage win saw Cavendish move into the overall race lead as well as into the lead in the points jersey competition, after his 3rd place during yesterday’s stage.
Mark Cavendish – “I am really happy with today, to get the win after going so close yesterday. It was touch and go as to whether the break would be caught but the team rode hard up front. Mark gave me a good leadout, it was only going to be difficult because we didn’t have the full team at the end. Mark got me onto Sky before the last corner which was perfect because I was able to come around Elia Viviani to get the win.”
