Elia Viviani (Sky) confirmed his good feelings for sprinting in the Middle East when he won the spectacular Palm Jumeirah stage at the Dubai Tour for the second year in a row. After his Sky team had avoided a crash at the exit of an important tunnel just before the flamme rouge, the Italian was delivered perfectly on the front and easily held off Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek). Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) was held up behind the crash and so Viviani is the new leader on a countback.

 

We have gathered several reactions.

 

The countdown to 10 season victories starts for Elia Viviani in Dubai

Elia Viviani sprinted to his first win of the season at the Dubai Tour and took the race lead.

 

After a 'perfect' lead-out the Italian claimed a comfortable win on the Palm Jumeirah island, with team-mate Ben Swift finishing sixth.

 

As well as taking the blue race leader's jersey, Viviani also moved to the top of the points classification.

It made it a stunning 24 hours for the team, following Wout Poels' time-trial victory at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Peter Kennaugh's stage win at the Herald Sun Tour.

 

The lead-out worked to perfection in Dubai after the disappointment of day one, and Viviani was quick to thank his team-mates after the stage.

 

He said: "[Michal] Golas, Andy Fenn and [Ben] Swifty did a perfect lead-out for me. We came out of the tunnel really, really fast. Andy and Swifty took me to 100m to go so a big thanks to the team. Perfect job!

 

"Yesterday we had some faults and we went too early. I had to do two sprints and I'm not competitive with big sprinters if I have to sprint to take position before sprinting for the victory.

 

"Yesterday I opened my sprint too early and was left alone with no team-mate with 1km to go. I’m less fast than sprinters like Kittel and Cavendish, so to have a chance to beat them, I need everything to be perfect. We spoke about what went wrong last night and we rode perfectly as a team today. My lead out was excellent.

 

”Today’s stage was contested at a slower pace than yesterday’s and I was in an ideal position when the gap was closed onto the breakaway riders. This finale suits me. I won here last year as well. It’s beautiful to begin the year with a victory in Dubai.

 

"We had a good meeting this morning with (Sport Directors) Nico (Portal) and Brett (Lancaster). Brett has a lot of experience in the lead-outs and we knew yesterday that we went too early. Everyone was really motivated after that and I'm really happy we worked out."

 

The victory marked the first step in an ambitious goal for Viviani during the 2016 campaign as he aims for 10 victories on the road.

 

He explained: "This year we decided to do something with the fans to countdown my wins from one to hopefully 10. This is the first one on the board. Last year I finished with nine victories so this year I said okay, we need to do 10 for the first time because I've never done it before. But it is good to have a goal like this to aim for.

 

"I would have preferred to win at the Tour de San Luis last week but it's perfect to start the season here like I did last year. Maybe it's a lucky race for me!

 

"A perfect lead out means there’s only one sprint to do and that’s for the victory. Yesterday I had to sprint twice only to reposition myself and I finished eighth. Today I got what I needed for winning.

 

”Tomorrow it’ll be a decisive stage for the Dubai Tour. Last year we didn’t see the route before the stage and I got dropped with 10km to go. I have a better condition nowadays after having raced the Tour of San Luis. We’ll try to overcome the short climb at the finish and I’ll have another chance to win the overall on Sunday."

 

In-form Sacha Modolo second in hectic Dubai sprint

It was the second chapter of the battle of the best sprinters of the bunch in the Dubai Tour. Sacha Modolo played a role of the protagonsit and after the 4th place obtained in the first stage, he was 2nd in the second stage of the Arab race.

LAMPRE-MERIDA tried in the early part of the stage to join the breakaway, thanks to the attempts of Valerio Conti, Jan Polanc, Simone Petilli and Chun-Kai Feng. The Taiwanese champion was close to being in the main attack.

A crash at the end of the tunnel which connects the mainland to the Palm Jumeirah mixed up the situation during the approach to the sprint but Modolo managed to stay on Viviani’s wheel. He tried to overtake his compatriot, but the crosswind prevented him from doing so

Modolo is 4th in the overall classification, at 4 seconds behind.

"We planned to be in the breakaways and our riders made several attempts to escape from the bunch. It would have been a great opportunity for visibility and would allow us to keep ourselves covered in the ahead of the sprint,” sports director Marco Marzano explained. “Feng had almost reached the leading four riders, but he could not complete the chase.
 

”In the sprint, Ferrari was once again very important for Modolo, leading him to just behind Viviani at 700m from the finish. Unfortunately, Viviani was very strong and he did not make mistakes.

 

“The signals we receive from Modolo are still very encouraging, given that Sacha is already very competitive with only two days of racing in the legs.”
 

Key lead-out man for Giacomo Nizzolo hurt after big Duabi crash

The 183-kilometer stage two at the Dubai Tour ended once again in a fast bunched finish, but a crash in the front of the peloton coming out of the tunnel with one kilometer to go altered the final sprint for the line.

 

Boy Van Poppel, the final lead out for Giacomo Nizzolo, crashed hard after what appeared to be a touch of wheels. Nizzolo avoided going down behind him as he had lost Van Poppel's wheel in the tunnel - maybe in hindsight a good thing.

 

Nizzolo managed to recover and pulled himself back into the mix, but it was too late to muster anything better than third.

 

"We lost each other in the tunnel," explained Nizzolo "I had to do a massive effort to be in front coming out of the tunnel and that for sure didn't make me comfortable for the sprint. [The crash] is unfortunate part of racing and we can only hope that Boy will be okay for tomorrow."

 

Van Poppel did remount and finish the race. However, a crash at full speed left him banged and bruised, and a trip to the hospital will determine the extent of his injuries.

 

"Boy's our last guy to lead out Giacomo, and my biggest concern is that he's okay – to lose him is not good," said director Dirk Demol after the race. "When you crash at 60-65km/h it's going to hurt. It looked like he flipped over a few times and scraped up both sides. We have to wait to hear the final report to see if he will be able to continue."

 

"It was more wind today, and it changed directions many times making for a very nervous peloton today," added Demol. "The four riders were never given more than 2 minutes. Our plan was the same as yesterday: to be good at the end again and set up the leadout for Giacomo. I believe he was in the top 5-6 riders in the last 2 kilometers, but then the crash happened just before the last kilometer. It's too bad, but that's racing. Like I said at this point our main concern is that Boy will be okay."

 

It has since been confirmed that van Poppel will start tomorrow’s stage even though he is pretty bruised.

 

Guardini close to first podium in crash-marred Dubai sprint

Andrea Guardini (Astana) finished fourth.

 

"I helped Andrea to recover positions,” said Laurens De Vreese, “but the fall before the last kilometer had already ruined the whole team work.”

 

The script for this second stage of the Tour Dubai has followed that of yesterday with the initial breakaway caught at 10 km from the finish. The only difference was crash with 1,000 meters.

 

“What a pity,” said Ruslan Tleubayev. “We have been working a lot also to protect Andrea from the strong wind.”

 

Tinkoff dominate lead-out in hectic Dubai sprint

Michael Kolar bagged a second consecutive finish in the top 10, after a bunch sprint which was marked by a fall with 1 km to go. The Slovak rider now sits in ninth place in the GC while he holds on to second place in the Youth Classification, just 1 second behind the leader.

 

Similar to the first one, the second Dubai Tour stage, set off in Dubai and concluded in Palm Jumeirah, the spectacular artificial island, where the finish line was set after 183 km and three intermediate sprints.

 

Right from the start, the riders were battling to be part of the breakaway, which eventually was formed by four men gaining a maximum gap of nearly two minutes on the peloton, which kept the race under control. The last escapee was brought back in the group at about 12 km from the finish and the stage ended with a bunch sprint that was marked by a fall in the top positions of the peloton in the closing kilometer. Fortunately, no Tinkoff riders were affected.

 

Daniele Bennati managed to lead out Michael Kolar in a good position for the final sprint. The Slovak sprinter gave his best and was overtaken only a few meters from the finish line while grabbing seventh place. A result that allows him to gain one position in the Dubai Tour GC advancing to ninth place.

 

"The pace of the race today was very similar to yesterday's. However we did better and in the last 5 km we were ready," stated Sport Director Bruno Cenghialta. "Luckily, the crash within a  few hundred meters from the finish, didn't involve anyone in our squad, so we managed without any problems, thanks to Bennati and Gogl, to pull the sprint for Michael Kolar who then grabbed seventh place. The guys did a good job, and everything went as we expected. We are building up the necessary mechanisms to achieve better results in the near future."

 

Daniele Bennati, today the lead-out man for Michael Kolar, sums up the stage: "Today was a quiet day, it was a bit windy and we rode quite fast the whole day with the teams of the sprinters, that controlled the breakaway. Then in the last kilometers the pace was even faster, but the team was able to hold on to the top positions up to the finale, and I did a good job together with Gogl for Kolar, bringing him up to the last 200 meters when he then started his sprint and, thanks to the dedicated teamwork, Michael managed to finish in the top 10. "

 

Tomorrow's stage, the third one, will be 172 km long, starting again in Dubai. It will be the decisive leg to define the Dubai Tour GC, with the last 50 km meant to see the riders battling on the climbs prior to the decisive final Hatta Dam climb where the riders will have to face slopes with a gradient up to 17%.

 

"Tomorrow will be a special stage as the last km will be uphill, with steep slopes. We will rely on Daniele Bennati who is very fit and doing well, so we'll try to bring him in the best possible position for the final sprint", added Cenghialta.

 

Polish sprinter earns first top 10 for CCC Sprandi in Dubai

Grzegorz Stępniak earned his and team’s first top 10 spot of the 2016 season by finishing 8th on stage 2 of Dubai Tour. 

 

“I was very motivated at the start and I wanted to deliver good result for the team,” Grzegorz Stępniak said afterwards. “The crash could have shattered all my plans since it happened right next to me and I was the first one to go around it. I lost contact with the front of the bunch and I had to sprint to get back up front. I took a deep breath and sprinted again, this time for the finish. I took 8th and I will have one more chance, on the last day of racing, to improve that result.”

 

Brutally strong Marcin Bialoblocki takes sprints jersey in Dubai

The second stage of Dubai Tour cover 183 kilometres starting by the Dubai Marina and finishing on the Palm Jumeirah outside the World famous Atlantis hotel. 

 

Once again ONE Pro Cycling were active early on looking for the breakaway with both Hayden McCormick and yesterday’s breakaway rider Martin Mortensen looking to seek out an early move. Following a few early flourishes a breakaway of four was established which included Polish National Time Trial champion Marcin Bialoblocki. He looked to set himself up to challenge for the UAE intermediate sprints competition and took maximum points in all three sprints at the Al Qudra Cycletrack after 77.2km, the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Sport.Com sprint after 105.5km and finally the Jumeriah Golf Estates sprint which had an extra monetary prize on the line.

 

Bialoblocki was challenged by his three breakaway companions at each sprint but by gathering 15 points it was enough to see him on the top step of the podium as the official UAE Intermediate Sprint Jersey winner at the end of the stage.

 

During the action, the breakaway was never allowed more than 2 minutes as the peloton kept a tight leash on proceedings and catching the breakaway with 20km to go. ONE Pro Cycling were looking to deliver Cornish sprinter Chris Opie to the finish line and took up the head of the peloton with around 12km to go. Although this was the first time this sprint train have had the opportunity to work together the team kept him positioned perfectly at the front of the group ready for the final sprint.

 

Heading towards the finale on the Palm the peloton made its way through the underwater tunnel where a crash brought down a number of riders stalling Opie in the sprint. Opie recovered well and sprinted across the line to secure 9th place in front of Mark Cavendish of Dimension Data. His second top ten in two days which sets the team up nicely for the remainder of the race.

 

"I might have little experience at this level of racing but we have prepared very well for our first season as a Pro Continental team,” Bialoblocki said. “I’m in good shape so I had no problem with the speed. I was also fast enough to win the intermediate sprints. I’m happy with my ride."

 

Crash takes Mark Cavendish out of contention in Dubai

Songezo Jim was the rider from Dimension Data to be doing a large majority of the early chase work, in order to set up a sprint for Mark Cavendish. At just 2 minutes’ lead, it would be a long hard day in the desert for the break before they were caught with 10km to go. Once the catch was made, a number of teams rallied at the front of the peloton to position their sprinters.

 

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka were riding alongside Etixx-Quickstep leading into the final 5km, well positioned for the finale. Some bumping and barging saw the team lose each other’s wheels which put Cavendish a few places back. With 2km to go the race went through a kilometer-long tunnel, and on emerging there was a crash at the front of the bunch. Fortunately, none of the Dimension Data riders went down but Cavendish, already coming from a few places back, had to close a gap to get back to the wheel of Gaurdini. As the sprint opened up at the front, our fast man just wasn't in a position to challenge for the win, rolling across the line in 10th place today.

 

“We were okay in the tunnel and Mark (Renshaw) did a good job,” Cavendish told Cyclingnews. “Then a rider from SkyDive Dubai, I don’t know his name, he just turned right and ‘Bam!’ I was on my brakes, on the uphill…I knew I was too far behind after that but then I saw that Guardini had a lead out man. I decided to stay behind them thinking they’d accelerate but they didn’t. I was just too far back. Shit happens…”

 

”The plan is clear; we are going for Cav every day. Today the crash in the final messed with our plans a bit. Cav is looking really good though and we are going to keep on trying, tomorrow is another day and another chance,” Jim said.

 

”The boys did a good job for most of the stage today,” sports director Jens Zemke said. “Songezo was helping Quickstep from about halfway through the race, controlling the break and keeping them on a short hand. The final was a bit messy, they had to change the last 5 kilometers because of road works and the finish now took place just 1 kilometer after coming out of a kilometer-long tunnel. This made things a bit tricky and in the end we weren't able to deliver the top result today.”

 

Novo Nordisk sprinter eyes overall top 10 in Dubai

Team Novo Nordisk’s Martijn Verschoor sprinted to 11th place on Stage 2 of Dubai Tour, placing him 13th overall in general classification.

 

Thursday’s stage kicked off with several attacks. “The pace was high from the very beginning with many attacks and counter-attacks,” Team Novo Nordisk Senior Vice President of Athletics, Vassili Davidenko said.

 

After 6km, a four-man break was able to pull away, and though the Team Novo Nordisk squad was active, they had no luck in making the break. Etixx – Quick Step set a fast tempo in the peloton, with an average speed of 49.8km/h, and Team Novo Nordisk worked to put sprinter Martijn Verschoor in position for the final sprint.

 

The Dutch rider was well protected approaching the final 3km, “but 1.5km from the finish,” Davidenko points out, “the peloton passed through a tunnel, and there was a crash on the exit. The riders were forced to slow down to get around the crash, and a lot of speed was lost. Martijn was able to work to recover several positions and still finish the race at a solid 11th position.”

 

“It was unfortunate that I lost some speed in the crash,” Verschoor says. “I got bit fatigued working my way back to the front and may have lost power for the final 300m. But I felt very strong today, and my teammates did a great job to support me throughout the entire stage. It’s too bad I didn’t score a top 10 today, but tomorrow is a G.C. day, and I am in a good position at 13th overall. So I hope I’ll be able to move into the top 10 after tomorrow’s stage.”

 

Moroccan stays in white in Dubai and vows to attack again

Souffiane Haddi lost the sprints jersey but is still the best young rider.

 

"I’m happy to keep the white jersey,” he said. “I also wanted to break away again to defend the lead in the intermediate sprints competition but my friend [Francisco Mancebo] went so I stayed in the peloton. It was good to have our team represented at the front again. I haven’t said my last word. Tomorrow I’ll try to regain the lead for the intermediate sprints."

 

Giovanni Visconti goes down in Dubai chaos

The Movistar Team kept suffering from misfortune during stage two of the Dubai Tour - 183km from the Emirate's capital to the artificial complex of Palm Jumeirah - as one of its marquee riders, Giovanni Visconti, lost control of his bike and crashed against the stand ten kilometers from the line - where Elia Viviani (SKY) took the day's honours into a bunch sprint.

 

The Italian could get back to the tail of the main field despite feeling a bit dizzy and pain in his head, yet with no serious injuries. Another incident in a tunnel after the flamme rouge broke the field; Juanjo Lobato, again near the top ten, stays 10" behind the GC leader.

 

The Dubai Tour will most probably come down to Friday's arrivée to the Hatta dam, a 200m, 12-17% gradient slope where Lobato was 3rd in 2015, behind Degenkolb and Valverde. The Andalusian will be looking forward to snatching his maiden stage win of this season there.

 

BMC ready to set Philippe Gilbert up for overall victory in Dubai

Silvan Dillier was BMC Racing Team’s man in the four-rider break which went away at the 12 kilometer mark, eventually gaining a 2’02 gap.

 

The breakaway was pulled back at the 168 kilometer mark as the peloton made its way through the final 10 kilometers of the stage through Palm Jumeirah.

 

A couple of crashes in the final kilometers split the peloton, leaving a small group to sprint for the finish. Philippe Gilbert was BMC Racing Team’s best-placed rider, finishing 14th in the sprint. Silvan Dillier sits 16th overall on the General Classification, 10 seconds behind Viviani.

 

BMC Racing Team Sports Director Max Sciandri said the team is happy to have made the break on the first two stages of the race.

 

“It’s always nice to have someone in the breakaway with Loïc Vliegen yesterday and Silvan Dillier today. Silvan told me this morning that he was feeling good and wanted to test the legs, so he had a good run in the breakaway today.

 

“The team is still here to protect our team leader Philippe Gilbert and tomorrow’s stage finishing on the Hatta Dam will be an important one in determining the GC.”

 

Marcel Kittel still targets overall victory in Dubai

As the sprinters' teams prepared for a fast finish, a crash occurred with 1000 meters to go, near the exit of the underwater tunnel, and among the ones who got stuck behind was also Marcel Kittel. With the sprint disrupted and a reduced peloton, there weren't any proper lead-out trains going into the last 500 meters. In the run-in, Elia Viviani (Sky) proved to be the strongest and crossed the line first, edging out his countrymen Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory-Segafredo). With Kittel unable to contest the sprint, Viviani also got his hands on the blue jersey.

 

Although disappointed by the outcome, Marcel Kittel was keen on seeing the positive side of things: "The team did a really good job and controlled the whole race. It was difficult to stay together after that crash and we lost each other a bit in the finale, so when we got out of the tunnel we were too far from the ones at the front. That's cycling: yesterday we made it, but today we weren't rewarded for all the hard work. Still, we have to take the good parts from this stage, and those are the cohesion of the group and the fantastic job of my teammates.

“We will all fight it. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to at least stay in the same time but we will see, we definitely have some good cards to play tomorrow,” he told Cyclingnews.

 

“First of all I really want to say that my team did an amazing job, they did 90 per cent of the work today, for the whole bunch against four guys with a lot of wind, it was really impressive and I’m proud.

 

“Like I said yesterday, there are days were we won’t be able to get the result that we want. I think the team tried as much as possible. The final was difficult, we did some mistakes, and we have to be honest about that, but it’s better to do some mistakes now than later in the season.”

 

Giant-Alpecin with unusual tactic in Dubai

Koen de Kort made the day’s breakaway on stage 2 of the Dubai Tour as the Giant-Alpecin’s sprinting plans were ruined due to a late crash in the bunch, which Elia Viviani avoided to take the victory.

 

“Today we went for the breakaway again and to give it a chance in a possible bunch sprint. Koen hit the break of the day and was there for 150km. They passed the intermediate sprints and he took 5 bonus seconds,” coach Morten Bennekou explained.

 

“In the peloton the team did a good job staying together and communicating with each other. Unfortunately, there was a crash in the last km that ruined our chances to sprint with Bert [de Backer], since a large group of riders were held up, including our guys. Fortunately no one was involved in the crash.

 

“For the coming days we continue to aim for stage results and work on the team process."