Tour of Dubai: Cummings second

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BMC’s Stephen Cummings showed he’s no slouch in a time trial with second behind teammate Taylor Phinney in the 10 kilometre opening time trial

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It was a good day for BMC on the streets of Dubai with Taylor Phinney and Stephen Cummings finishing first and second on the opening stage of the inaugural Dubai Tour. Held over ten kilometres and with riders on road bikes on the some times twisting and testing flat circuit on the city streets, Phinney crossed the line in a time of 12 minutes three seconds whilst Cummings was only 14 seconds slower.

TAYLOR

Photo: DubaiTour.com

It had been Cummings, an early starter, who warmed up the hot seat for a long time before Phinney, another early starter, took it over for the remainder of the race. With all the talk pre-race more about Phinney’s hair, the American let his hairless legs do the talking in the race besting a host of top stars.

Cummings said he was not too disappointed to have been beaten by his own teammate. “I tried my best, but I think Taylor did an exceptional ride,” he said. “He was strong. It is a great start for this team. Everyone was strong though, not just the two of us. Like Yannick (Eijssen). He weighs about 60 kilos and he was 16th. It’s incredible.”

VIDEO: Stage 1 Time Trial – Aerodynamics

Young rider Lasse Norman Hansen of Garmin Sharp was third while World Champion Tony Martin was fourth with 12′ 25″. “First of all, I felt really good,” Martin said. “I made a good race. When I saw the data on the clock it was quite OK. The result at the end, I don’t want to say it’s the reason of circumstances, but I wish we had all started at the same time — all of the main contenders — to have a realistic result. But I had to start at the end, so OK. I did my best and considering the situation I think it was really OK. Congratulations to Taylor Phinney as it was a strong race for him and he deserved the victory.”

Another legend of the time trial, Fabian Cancellera was 5th. The Swiss rider had played down his own chances in the race but still came up with a special ride. “It’s probably the biggest pain I will get from the whole week. A 10 kilometre TT for an opening – with no [previous] feelings, no condition – I have experience but to start the season like this, is very difficult. During the race I lost my SRM connection, no heart rate, no indication, so I don’t have the overview at the end of the day. But I am okay with that, for me the result is not what counts, and there is not much you can even take out of 10K.  I am still missing three weeks of training from being sick and the crash I had a few weeks ago.”

In such a star studded field, Phinney was pleased with the win. “It means a lot” he said afterwards. “I’ve been thinking about this race for a while, ever since the race route came out. I was pretty nervous that he (Martin) was going to beat me there in the end but I was overjoyed and super relieved that I was able to come away with the win, having thought about this race for a couple of months now.

In an event where riders are normally seeded when there is no overall classification to rank the riders, Phinney would normally have been off later but asked BMC’s DS Max Sciandri if he could start early. “We made the tactical decision to start earlier because most of the weather reports showed the wind was going to increase through the day. It was kind of a fight on the way back going into a headwind but I felt strong.”

“I put out the power that I wanted to put out,” he said. “It was really a lot of watts and very strong. I felt fine. It was really one of those courses where it was over before you know it.”

After the battle between the testers, the next stage sees the battle between the sprinters and with Cavendish and Kittel the two fastest in the world last year in the Tour de France, all eyes will be on these riders as the stage finishes in Dubai.

STAGE 1 Time Trial
1 PHINNEY Taylor BMC Racing Team 12:03
2 CUMMINGS Stephen BMC Racing Team @:14
3 NORMAN HANSEN Lasse Garmin Sharp @:16
4 MARTIN Tony Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team @:22
5 CANCELLARA Fabian Trek Factory Racing @:25
6 SAGAN Peter Cannondale @:31
7 MALORI Adriano Movistar Team @:32
8 BODNAR Maciej Cannondale @:35
9 PORSEV Alexander Team Katusha @ st
10 VELITS Peter BMC Racing Team @:37

OTHERS
11 KITTEL Marcel Team Giant-Shimano @:38
18 NIBALI Vincenzo Astana Pro Team @.44
37 CAVENDISH Mark Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team @:54
39 PETACCHI Alessandro Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team @ st
51 DOWSETT Alex Movistar Team @ 1.04
66 HUSHOVD Thor BMC Racing Team @ 1.13
89 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquim Team Katusha @ 1.37
115 COUTTS Alex RTS-Santic Racing Team @2:15

 

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