UAE Tour stage 2: Mark Cavendish storms Abu Dhabi sprint

Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) stormed to victory on stage 2 of the UAE Tour.

After missing out on even a top-10 finish on the opening day Sunday, the Manx sprinter was in the perfect place to charge to his second win of the year.

Stage 1 winner and race leader, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) was closing the gap to Cavendish but didn’t have enough road to overhaul him with the Manxman taking it on the final dive to the line. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), who was a late addition to the race’s start list, finished third.

Thanks to bonus seconds, Philipsen will retain the leader’s red jersey going into stage 3 with a four-second gap over Dmitrii Strakhov (Gazprom-RusVelo), who was in the day’s breakaway.

“I’m just happy. I knew that we could win, but more so because of how the team worked today. A third of the team here is first-year professionals and this is the first or second race in their career, and seeing how they rode today they were like seasoned professionals. That’s after one day after talking about yesterday and how we didn’t get it right. Nobody panicked today,” Cavendish said after the finish.

“The job was to get me into the final as fresh as possible and they did that. Fortunately, they did it so well that I could go for between 300 and 250 meters into a headwind. It’s usually too far going into a headwind but they did it so well that I knew I would have the energy to keep it to the line. I was quite fortunate because I could feel Philipsen coming quite fast at me. You know he’s in good form because of his sprint yesterday so I’m happy I could hold him off and take the win.”

And it’s @MarkCavendish first across the line at the Abu Dhabi Breakwater! What a spectacular finish! 🏁@ihc_ae @AbuDhabiSC @Tadweer_cwm #UAETour #WorldTour #Cycling #Race #UAE pic.twitter.com/Oc8rBGS9a7

— UAE Tour Official (@uae_tour) February 21, 2022

The second day of the UAE Tour would be another opportunity to the long list of star sprinters in the pack. The bunch was buffeted by winds of all kinds and echelons formed as crosswinds scythed through the bunch early on causing riders to scramble not to be left behind.

In an unusual sight, three members of the Gazprom-RusVelo team, Strakhov, Michael Kukrle, and Pavel Kochetkov, jumped clear of the peloton, amid the early chaos. As the wind died down, the peloton allowed the three Russian riders some room up front to mop up the intermediate sprint points.

The trio was eventually reeled in with 34 kilometers to go by a peloton was riding at close to a crawling pace. Indeed, the speed was slow enough to Jasper Philipsen to joke around by jumping off his bike and momentarily run alongside the bunch.

It wouldn’t be a slow trudge all the way to the finish line and the pace ramped up again when the wind rose with about 20 kilometers to go. The sprinters’ teams continued to turn the screw on the bunch as it closed in on the finishing stretch.

All was ready for another big sprint battle on the wide roads along the Abu Dhabi breakwater. Cavendish was able to rely on his key leadout man Michael Mørkøv to get him to the head of the peloton and the Quick-Step rider had a clear run all the way to the line.

Despite the tricky headwind, Cavendish held off a late charge from Philipsen to take the win.

Stage 3 of the UAE Tour will be a flat nine-kilometer time trial that will shake up the overall standings ahead of the first mountain stage of the week Wednesday.

The Manx Missile celebrates after his signature sprint! 🏁 @MarkCavendish @ihc_ae @AbuDhabiSC @Tadweer_cwm #UAETour #WorldTour #Cycling #Race #UAE pic.twitter.com/HL4mtHRHhP

— UAE Tour Official (@uae_tour) February 21, 2022