Abu Dhabi Tour: Kristoff wins opener, Cavendish crashes out

After spending the majority of the 189-kilometre opening stage just out of reach of an early five-man break led by last-man-standing Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing), the field blistered the final five kilometres in route to a grueling false flat sprint finish in the closing 200 metres with European champion Alexander Kristoff taking the win.

The former Katusha-Alpecin rider who signed with UAE-Team Emirates for the next two seasons, delivered the home country squad a bunch sprint victory at the Abu Dhabi Tour (UCI 2.UWT) finish in Madinat Zayed.

It was the second win in a row for the 30-year-old Norwegian. After being shut out in the Dubai Tour two weeks ago, Kristoff won the finale of the Tour of Oman (2.HC) on Sunday before arriving in Abu Dhabi to claim the first stage of the second WorldTour stage race of the season.

“I’ve been feeling good all season start actually,” Kristoff told Eurosport. “In Dubai I did not manage to win, but then I got one in the last day in Oman and now again first one here. Feeling is good and that’s most important and also for the team. We are in the home country actually and it means a lot for the team to manage to get a good result and also take the pressure a little from my teammates.

“Now we have already good result,” he continued. But still we want to perform next day also.”

Italian Andrea Guardini (Bardiani-CSF) finished second, followed by Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott), who opened his 2018 account with a stage win at the Tour Down Under (2.UWT) in January before claiming victory at Clasica de Almeria (1.HC) last week. The 23-year-old Australian told Eurosport after the stage that timing played a critical factor in the outcome.

“Ideally it was a sprint that you wanted to come really late, but I was kind of forced into going early,” Ewan explained. “Once I had no other option, I just committed. I didn’t want to hesitate and to lose too much speed in that finish.

“I just went in there and hoped for the best, but Kristoff was too fast for me.”

While Kristoff celebrated after the win while wearing the red leader’s jersey, for 2011 world road race champion Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) it was a bad day at the office. The 31-year-old Isle of Man sprinter famously known as the ‘Manx Missile’ crashed out of the race when he went down with another rider after the pair got caught up behind a race official automobile in the neutral zone.

Cavendish quickly remounted his bike and bravely battled five kilometres back to the field before eventually withdrawing. First reports suggested ‘Cav’ may have re-aggravated his previously injured shoulder suffered in a collision with current three-time world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the fourth stage of the Tour de France last year. However, medical analysis revealed a concussion was reason for the early exit.

Cavendish was racing his third race in as many weeks in the Middle East, something he told Cycling Weekly’s Gregor Brown he was initially scheduled to do in a pre-race interview just minutes before the start.

“Originally I was only supposed to do Dubai Tour and Abu Dhabi Tour,” said the second all-time Tour de France stage winner with 30 wins — just four off all-time leader Eddy Merckx (BEL). “I was going to go back to Europe in-between. One guy was out in Oman, and I said ‘I’m out here so I might as well do it’ … last time I did it was 2012.

“It was actually a bit more tranquil though then,” he added. “So I thought Oman would be just a bit getting the race in the legs, but it actually turned out to be a bit harder than I imagined.”

Thursday features another sprinter-friendly flat stage. This time on Yas Island following a 154km course that culminates on Yas Beach — the home of Formula One’s Yas Marina Circuit, Ferrari World and Yas Island Mall.

For full stage and race results, click here.