British sprint king Mark Cavendish has won the opening stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour.
The World Tour teams arrived with plenty of big guns in their ranks for this race which now has World Tour level and opened with a 189km stage which started and finished in Madinat Zayed.
On this stage which was entirely run in the desert and Team Sky facing a possible €10,000 fine for only having six riders instead of the full eight-man roster, Ershov, Kuboki, Lozano, Maestri, Mori and Zakharov got into a break and were five minutes ahead after forty kilometres.
Manuel Mori took the first intermediate sprint as the gap went out to six minutes but levelled out to about three and the second sprint at Liwa with just over sixty kilometres to go beating Zakharov and Kuboki.
Juri Segan crashed as only Mori, Zakharov and Kuboki remained in the break with a lead of 1.28 with 42kms left.
Kuboki dropped back to the peloton with seventeen kilometres to go and eight hundred metres later, Mori and Zkharov were caught.
Movistar and Dimension Data led with six kilometres left as the pace went up to 45kmh.
Alberto Contador of Trek Segafredo, had to grab a bike after being delayed with 4.5kms following a touch of wheels. His team helped the Spaniard back into the peloton with three kilometres to go whilst on the front, Movistar and Orica Scott along with Team Sky controlled the action.
Mark Cavendish was brought up with 1.2km but just under the flam rouge, there was a big crash involving Alex Dowsett and Owain Doull of Team Sky. Cavendish avoided that and was led out to beat Andre Greipel and Niccolo Bonifazio and take the win in 4.37.06.
Article by Kev Monks for Digital Sports Group
Source: DSG
