Abu Dhabi Tour: Viviani wins stage 2 and takes race lead

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Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) won an easy sprint on the second stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour, also taking the race lead. Second on the day went to Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) with Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) third.

The win moved Viviani to the top of the GC, tied on time with now-second-ranked Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), with van Poppel in third at four seconds.

"I need to break the ice on the first day of a stage race. Usually, I don't win the first sprint. It's been the case again but I was very confident today. Also in the echelons, I felt strong and I was willing to pull. We had Julian Alaphilippe and Enric Mas in the front group," Viviani said.

"It was good for our GC but we also wanted to win the stage, so I asked the guys to wait for me and close the gap. When we regrouped with 20km to go, I said we put all our efforts into the last corner. The young Alvaro Hodeg is unbelievable in his preparation for my sprint. Michael Morkov is always in the right place and I trust Fabio Sabatini 100 per cent for the lead out. With such a team, it was easy for me to finish it off.”

A five-man break group dominated the first half of the race, but they were caught again at the feed zone. Movistar and Katusha-Alpecin took advantage of crosswinds to rip the race wide open, dropping not only race leader Alexander Kristoff (UAE Emirates) but several GC candidates. After a furious chase, the race finally came back together within the final 20 kilometers, leading to the expected mass sprint finish.

Stage 2 – a 154km race from Vas Mall to Vas Beach - offered barely a bump on the road. Shortly after the start, Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani CSF), Joey Rosskopf (BMC), Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Alexander Porsev (Gazprom Rusvelo) and the seemingly tireless Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk) formed the group of the day.

Their gap topped out at four minutes as the peloton was unwilling to let them get too far away. The advantage started coming down after the halfway point as the field picked up the pace.

The sprinters' teams put on the pressure as they all charged into the feed zone, with the gap dropping dramatically. With 47km left, Katusha led the thundering herd past the break group.

Crosswinds came into play, and the leading teams continued to push the pace as hard as possible. The tactics worked, as the field was quickly strung out and riders were rapidly dropped.

A number of top riders were caught out, with race leader Alexander Kristoff (UAE Emirates) and GC favourite Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) in the second group. Fabio Aru (UAE Emirates), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Marcel Kittel (Katusha) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) were all in the first group and doing their best to keep at 30 seconds.

The second and third groups came together and rode furiously, but the gap stayed steady at around 30 seconds as the fast and furious action continued. With just under 23km to go the pace dropped up front and the Kristoff-Dumoulin group came within sight of the leaders. They hooked on again with around 18 km remaining. Movistar and Katusha remained at the head of the field, driving hard. The sprint trains were all on track going under the 1km marker. Quick-Step lead the way before LottoNL-Jumbo moved to the front. Ackermann was the first to jump, but both Viviani and van Poppel powered their ways past him.

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