Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 2 Report

Stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour, another one for the sprinters, with a long 153km around
the outskirts of Abu Dhabi before a finish at Al Marina.
6 riders broke away within a couple of kilometres of the official start, with 5 of the teams
involved in yesterday’s breakaway making it once again into the move.
They built a 2 minute advantage by the time we hit the first intermediate sprint.
Nippo-Vini Fantini’s Marco Canola took the points and bonus seconds on offer at KM53
from Fabio Calabria of Novo Nordisk and Kristijan Durasek of UAE Team Emirates.
While André Greipel and the other sprinters made riding at 45km/h look pretty easy, the break
had more points to chase at KM99, and once again Canola got up for maximum points ahead
of Nicola Boem and Kirill Sveshnikov.
Things began to heat up as we entered the final hour of racing, and the gap to the 6
leaders had dipped to a solitary minute with around 45km to go.
After yesterday’s crash, Marcel Kittel opted for rim brakes today.
This puncture didn’t prove too costly for him as he was paced back into the main group.
By this point the 6 breakaway riders were on borrowed time, but while the majority of
the break called it quits with 9km to go, Canola and Alessandro De Marchi decided to
test the chasers with a last ditch effort.
Some of you will remember this stage last year where the break was caught in sight of
the finish.
It wasn’t quite as close this time, with the intrepid pair finally absorbed with 2km
to go, Quickstep Floors now driving the pace hard for the finish.
With no crashes to dilute the field of star sprinters today, it was Caleb Ewan who lit
things up on the home straight.
It looked like a drag race between him and Mark Cavendish, but leaving it late on the
outside was Marcel Kittel who surprised everyone, not least Caleb Ewan, to sneak the win at
the very last.
The young Aussie won’t make that mistake again we suspect, but a good performance from
him nonetheless, mixing it with the best in the world.
Cavendish not quite there today, but good enough to round out the podium.
The Manxman retains the leader’s red jersey for now, but that’s set to change
with tomorrow’s summit finish to Jebel Hafeet, a stage that will no doubt decide the overall winner.
Make sure to subscribe to GCN if you haven’t already, we’ve got race reports and more
Abu Dhabi Tour videos coming over the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, if you’ve not seen our GCN vs Mark Cavendish challenge, you need to.
Right now.
Click here to see it.
And, a few weeks ago in Dubai, Dan found out how Marcel Kittel hones that fearsome sprint
in this video here.

Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 2 Report

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