Cycling: Cavendish grabs Tour of Abu Dhabi lead
Mark Cavendish grabbed lead after victory in the second stage of the Tour of Abu Dhabi on Friday.
ABU DHABI (AFP) - Britain s Mark Cavendish sprinted to victory on the second stage of the Tour of Abu Dhabi on Friday, snatching the race leader s red jersey in the process.
Cavendish, second at the world championships in Doha last weekend, inherited the overall lead from Giacomo Nizzolo who is four seconds off the pace.
Having missed out on victory on the opening stage of the 2016 Abu Dhabi Tour, Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) timed his sprint perfectly on day two to take the win and put himself into the overall race lead.
Third behind Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) on Thursday, Cavendish put his Dimension Data team to work during the stage to ensure the ideal set-up. The Manxman repaid them with victory, the first for a British rider in the race.
Italian Elia Viviani (Team Sky) placed second with Andrea Guardini (Astana) in third.
Cavendish’s bonus seconds for the win saw him take the race lead from Nizzolo.
On another relatively short stage, the day’s escape group of Stanislau Bazhkou (Minsk), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge), Jan Polanc (Lampre Merida), Dion Smith (One Pro Cycling), Samuel Williams (One Pro Cycling) and Eugert Zhupa (Willier-Southeast) was given little room to grow a large time gap.
Keukeleire and Smith were both in the previous day’s break. Both were in the hunt for bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint to move up the general classification having started the day in fourth and fifth respectively. Keukeleire moved up to third for his effort.
Bazhkou dropped out of the break with 20km to go, leaving five out front with a one minute and 45 second gap.
The peloton left it very late as the break went under the flamme rouge with 10 seconds over the chasing bunch, as Team Sky hit the front. As the break were scooped up with around 500m to go, the sprinters started to open up their efforts.
Viviani hit the front first, but Cavendish managed to out-accelerate his Olympic omnium rival to win.
The 2016 Abu Dhabi Tour hits its most decisive stage on Saturday, the only stage that features a significant hill. The 11km climb to Jebel Hafeet will give the climbers a chance to shine and move up the overall classification. The race concludes on Sunday, October 23.
