photo credits @ Dubai Tour
Elia Viviani claimed stage 2 of the Dubai Tour today, after capitalizing on the chaos that struck the peloton during the closing kilometers, to win a reduced bunch sprint.
Indeed, the Team Sky sprinter found himself without the threat of yesterday’s winner Marcel Kittel, and pre-race favorite, Mark Cavendish, as both riders were held up in a crash that plagued the peloton during the final 2 kilometers.
Rather, Viviani’s closest rivals were Lampre-Merida’s Sacha Modolo and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), who were never a threat to the Italian rider, who breezed across the finish to a comfortable victory, after getting a good readout from teammate Ben Swift.
Race Highlights
The day’s four-man breakaway group containing Marcin Bialoblocki, Silvan Dillier (BMC), Koen de Kort (Giant-Alpecin) and Francisco Mancebo (Skydive Dubai) were finally caught during the last 13 kilometers, after spending most of the day out front.
As the race reached the closing kilometers, several teams began ushering their respective sprinters into place, with Bradley Wiggins briefly taking to the front, despite having no support from his teammates, who failed to organize themselves behind their leader.
Heading into the last 2 kilometers, a crash exiting a long tunnel held up the likes of Kittel and Cavendish, leaving Sky’s Viviani and Swift to battle with Tinkoff and Lampre in the final sprint.
Top 10 Finishers
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky 4:07:39 2 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre – Merida 3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 4 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 5 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai 6 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky 7 Michal Kolar (Svk) Tinkoff Team 8 Grzegorz Stepniak (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 9 Chris Opie (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 10 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data
General Classification after stage 2
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky 7:42:50 2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx – Quick-Step 3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:02 4 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre – Merida 0:00:04 5 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 6 Soufiane Haddi (Mar) Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team – Al Ahli Club 0:00:09 7 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:10 8 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai 9 Michal Kolar (Svk) Tinkoff Team 10 Chris Opie (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling
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