News: Abu Dhabi Stage 1

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Giacomo Nizzolo seizes victory in Abu Dhabi stage one, Mark Cavendish 3rd, Chris Latham 5th

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News: Abu Dhabi Stage 1

The blustery winds made for a sketchy ending to stage one in the Abu Dhabi tour Thursday, a perfect scenario for Giacomo Nizzolo, one of the best positioning unpredictable bunch finishes, and he easily held off John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) to take the win.

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Picture: Graham Watson

“This is the best way to start this race,” smiled Nizzolo. “After the Worlds on Sunday I said let’s go to Abu Dhabi and see if I can get one victory more, and we did it.

“There was the last real corner 1.2 kilometers to go and then a roundabout with 700 meters to go, and I asked the team to put me in a good position there. From the roundabout, I just managed by myself, and I started my sprint from 200-220 meters to go. I felt power, and I was confident to reach the line first, and that’s how it went.”

A four-man breakaway, leading from the early going, animated the final kilometers of the flat 147-kilometer race, holding over 2 minutes’ advantage with 17 kilometers to go and sounding alarms in the pursuing peloton.

Not about to leave anything to chance, even with a stiff headwind facing the riders in the run-in, Trek-Segafredo added the fast legs of Niccolo Bonifazio to the chase, leaving Kiel Reijnen and Marco Coledan to help position Nizzolo in the finale.

“When I saw that the gap was so big and so close to the finish I decided to put another guy into helping with the chase,” explained Nizzolo. “To have no doubts we decided to help pull, and in the end, it was the right choice. I am very happy, and of course a big thanks to all my team, and we will try and keep the jersey tomorrow.”

Trek-Segafredo takes the red leader’s jersey into stage two tomorrow, also projected to end in a sprint finish.

Result
1. Giacomo Nizzolo, Trek-Segafredo 3:15:59
2. John Degenkolb, Giant-Alpecin
3. Mark Cavendish, Dimension Data
4. Magnus Cort Nielsen, Orica-BikeExchange
5. Christopher Latham, Team Wiggins

13. Jon Dibben, Team Wiggins
68. Dan Pearson, Team Wiggins
75. Andy Fenn, Sky
83. James Knox, Team Wiggins
84. Sam Williams, One Pro
86. Kristian House, One Pro
92. Andy Tennant, Team Wiggins
96. Owain Doull, Team Sky

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