DubaiTour Stage 2 – Viviani

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Win for Elia Vivani after crash halts Kittel & Cavendish battle, three Brits in top 10 on the second stage as Bialoblocki makes the podium

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DubaiTour Stage 2 – Viviani

Elia Viviani bounces back in Dubai, Swift 6th, Opie 9th, Cav 10th

Viviani
Photo: PHOTO ANSA – PERI/DAL ZENNARO

Elia Viviani sprinted to his first win of the season at the Dubai Tour and took the race lead. After a ‘perfect’ lead-out, the Italian claimed a comfortable win on the Palm Jumeirah island, with team-mate Ben Swift finishing sixth.

As well as taking the blue race leader’s jersey, Viviani also moved to the top of the points classification. It made it a stunning 24 hours for the team, following Wout Poels’ time-trial victory at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Peter Kennaugh’s stage win at the Herald Sun Tour.

The lead-out worked to perfection in Dubai after the disappointment of day one, and Viviani was quick to thank his team-mates after the stage. He said: “[Michal] Golas, Andy Fenn and [Ben] Swifty did a perfect lead-out for me. We came out of the tunnel really, really fast. Andy and Swifty took me to 200m to go so a big thanks to the team. Perfect job.

“Yesterday we had some faults and we went too early. I had to do two sprints and I’m not competitive with big sprinters if I have to sprint to take position before sprinting for the victory.”

“I would have preferred to win at the Tour de San Luis last week but it’s perfect to start the season here like I did last year. Maybe it’s a lucky race for me!”

The pan-flat stage unfolded as expected and a four-man break was swallowed up by the peloton with 15 kilometres to go. In the break of four was Marcin Bialoblocki who won the intermediate sprints to take that jersey and get himself a podium spot in the race just as Pete Williams did at the Tour of Britain. The break though was never given much more than a minute or twos lead and they were caught as expected on the run in to the finish.

After doing much of the work to keep the break close, Etixx Quickstep were able to have a breather as British team One Pro showed themselves at the front with 10k to go and kept the pace high before the other trains got into gear in the final few k.

A crash by Trek rider Boy van Poppel in the tunnel with a k to go, got in the way of the Etixx Quickstep train and halted Kittel’s bid for the stage whilst Sky, on the other side to the crash, hit top gear in favour of Viviani.

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THE CRASH
Boy Van Poppel ( Trek-Segafredo), the final lead out for Giacomo Nizzolo, crashed hard after what appeared to be a touch of wheels. Nizzolo avoided going down behind him as he had lost Van Poppel’s wheel in the tunnel – maybe in hindsight a good thing.

“We lost each other in the tunnel,” explained Nizzolo, “I had to do a massive effort to be in front coming out of the tunnel and that for sure didn’t make me comfortable for the sprint. [The crash] is unfortunate part of racing and we can only hope that Boy will be okay for tomorrow.”

Van Poppel did remount and finish the race. However, a crash at full speed left him banged and bruised, and a trip to the hospital will determine the extent of his injuries.

Cavendish’s Sprint
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka were riding alongside Etixx-Quickstep leading into the final 5km, well positioned for the finale. Some bumping and barging saw the South African team lose each other’s wheels which put Cav a few places back.

With 2km to go the race went through a kilometre-long tunnel, and on emerging there was a crash at the front of the bunch. None of the Dimension Data riders went down but Cav, already coming from a few places back had to close a gap to get back to the wheel of Gaurdini. As the sprint opened up at the front, the British rider wasn’t in a position to challenge for the win, rolling across the line in 10th place today.

Marcel Kittel and the crash
Happening near the exit of the underwater tunnel, and among the ones who got stuck behind the crash was Marcel Kittel of Etixx Quickstep. Although disappointed by the outcome, Marcel Kittel was keen on seeing the positive side of things: “The team did a really good job and controlled the whole race. It was difficult to stay together after that crash and we lost each other a bit in the finale, so when we got out of the tunnel, we were too far from the ones at the front.

That’s cycling: yesterday we made it, but today we weren’t rewarded for all the hard work. Still, we have to take the good parts from this stage, and those are the cohesion of the group and the fantastic job of my teammates.”

JERSEYS
Blue Jersey (General individual classification by time) – Elia Viviani (Team Sky)
Red Jersey, (General individual classification by points) – Elia Viviani (Team Sky)
White Jersey, (Best Young Rider born after 1 January 1991) – Soufiane Haddi
UAE Flag Jersey, (Intermediate Sprint Jersey Classification) – Marcin Bialoblocki (One Pro Cycling)

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RESULTS
1. Elia Viviani, Team Sky 4:07:39
2. Sacha Modolo, Lampre – Merida
3. Giacomo Nizzolo, Trek-Segafredo
4. Andrea Guardini, Astana
5. Tomas Vaitkus, Al Nasr Pro
6. Ben Swift, Team Sky
7. Michal Kolar, Tinkoff Team
8. Grzegorz Stepniak, CCC Sprandi
9. Chris Opie, ONE Pro
10. Mark Cavendish, Dimension Data

14. Philippe Gilbert, BMC
15. Yanto Barker, ONE Pro Cycling
16. Christopher Latham, Team Wiggins
22. Marcel Kittel, Etixx – Quick-Step
23. Daniele Bennati, Tinkoff Team
30. Andrew Fenn, Team Sky
70. Daniel Patten, Team Wiggins
71. Peter Williams, ONE Pro
72. Marcin Bialoblocki, ONE Pro
73. Samuel Sanchez, BMC
75. Alex Dowsett, Movistar Team
78. Fabian Cancellara, Trek-Segafredo
88. Andrew Tennant, Team Wiggins
104. Bradley Wiggins, Team Wiggins
109. Liam Holohan, Team Wiggins @ 2:12
113. Matt Brammeier, Dimension Data @ 2:30
114. Jonathan Dibben, Team Wiggins
118. Mark Christian, Team Wiggins @ 2:54

OVERALL
1. Elia Viviani,) Team Sky 7:42:50
2. Marcel Kittel, Etixx – Quick-Step
3. Giacomo Nizzolo, Trek-Segafredo @ 2
4. Sacha Modolo, Lampre – Merida @ 4
5. Mark Cavendish, Dimension Data
6. Soufiane Haddi, Skydive Dubai @ 9
7. Andrea Guardini, Astana @10
8. Tomas Vaitkus, Al Nasr P
9. Michal Kolar, Tinkoff Team
10. Chris Opie, ONE Pro

22. Christopher Latham, Team Wiggins @15
24. Philippe Gilbert, BMC
26. Ben Swift, Team Sky
37. Yanto Barker, ONE Pro
56. Fabian Cancellara, Trek-Segafredo
57. Peter Williams, ONE Pro
66. Marcin Bialoblocki, ONE Pro @17
78. Alex Dowsett, Movistar Team
105. Andrew Fenn, Team Sky @ 1:32
108. Liam Holohan, Team Wiggins @2:27
109. Jonathan Dibben, Team Wiggins @2:45
113. Andrew Tennant, Team Wiggins @3:38
114. Bradley Wiggins, Team Wiggins
120. Matt Brammeier, Dimension Data 5:17
Points
1 Elia Viviani, Team Sky 28 pts
2 Marcel Kittel, Etixx – Quick-Step 25
3 Sacha Modolo, Lampre – Merida 24
4 Giacomo Nizzolo,) Trek-Segafredo 22
5 Mark Cavendish, Dimension Data 17
6 Marcin Bialoblocki, ONE Pro 15
Intermediate Sprint Jersey
1 Marcin Bialoblocki, ONE Pro 15 pts
2 Soufiane Haddi, Skydive Dubai 10
3 Silvan Dillier, BMC 8

Youth Classification
1. Soufiane Haddi, Skydive Dubai
6. Chris Latham, Team Wiggins @ 6 secs

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