Viviani wins stage 2 of the Dubai Tour

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Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) collected the best birthday present he could wish for with victory on stage 2 of the Dubai Tour. The Italian, who turned 29 today, edged out stage 1 winner Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Riccardo Minali (Astana) to take the spoils.

The stage was decided by another messy and chaotic sprint with none of the major leadout teams able to deliver their sprinter perfectly to the line. On stage 1 it was Groenewegen who picked his way through the crowd and 24 hours later it was Viviani who repeated the trick. He timed his acceleration perfectly, seeing off the challenge from Mark Cavendish (Dimenion Data) who took fourth, and then holding off a late charge from the faster-finishing Groenewegen.

Groenewegen remains the overall leader, with Viviani just two seconds in arrears. BMC Racing’s Nathan Van Hooydonck once again made it into the break and collected enough bonus seconds to finish the stage third overall, nine seconds down on the overall leader.

“Having my birthday today added to my motivation. Losing yesterday was also good for my head," explained Viviani. "Overnight we felt like we missed one chance that would never be given back. I feel I'm in good condition and have the legs for winning. I had a mechanical but luckily it was with 20km to go and I had time to come back. With 500m to go, my lead out man Fabio Sabatini closed the gap. I chose Kristoff's wheel. I saw Groenewegen coming back with 50 meters but finally the line was in the right place for me to win. I'm pretty happy.”

For the second day in a row, Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) failed to deliver his lines when the spotlight shone in his direction. The German rider had his team on the front for most of the stage, but they withdrew from the action in the closing stages only to rally with a desperate challenge inside the final two kilometres. However, with his train fragmented, Kittel was unable to find a way through the bunch.

Viviani, who replaced Kittel at Quick-Step over the winter, had his team to thank after a late puncture inside the final 25 kilometres threatened to derail the Italian’s chances. He was duly paced back to the front of the bunch and his squad diligently controlled affairs until the final few hundred meters, at which point it seemed as though it was every sprinter for himself. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) was in the mix but he was unable to hold his challenge when Viviani opened up the throttle. Mark Cavendish appeared to be well-placed to come around the Italian’s wheel but ran out of steam as the line drew closer. Minali enjoyed clean air when he began his kick but Viviani had the measure of everyone. Groenewegen’s late surge looked impressive but he gave himself too much to do in the final 100 meters.

The early phase of the stage saw another break slip clear in the opening kilometres with Nathan Van Hooydonck (BMC Racing), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis Solutions Crédit), Fuwen Xue (Mitchelton-BikeExchange), Charles Planet (Team Novo Nordisk), Mohamed Al Mansouri (United Arab Emirates) and Yousif Mirza (UAE Team Emirates).

Van Hooydonck and Planet had been on the attack the day before, while Edet was Cofidis’ second representative in the main break after Daniel Teklehaimanot had marked his debut for the team with an attack on stage 1.

The leaders built up a near seven-minute advantage at one stage but Katusha initiated the chase and reduced the gap to a minute with just over an hour of racing remaining. There was a volley of defiance from the break as they Xue, Planet and Edet dropped their companions and restored the lead to over two minutes but, with under 15 kilometres to go, the peloton were in complete control.

The win marks Viviani’s second triumph of the season after the former Team Sky rider claimed an equally impressive stage victory at the Tour Down Under in January. The season is only a few weeks old but Quick-Step have already won five times, and if their Dubai performance is anything to go by, Viviani is set to enjoy the best years of his career as part of the Patrick Lefevere’s blue train. As for Kittel, it’s back to the drawing board for him and his lead out.

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