Cavendish wins Dubai Tour stage 3

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) opened his 2018 account with a convincing win on stage 3 of the Dubai Tour. After poor positioning and a lack of speed on the opening two days or racing, Cavendish set himself up perfectly to take his third career victory at the Dubai Tour. Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) put in a much better performance to take second while Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) came from a long way back to finish third. Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) came through in 10th place and initially held onto his race lead but was docked 20 seconds by the race jury for drafting, handing the lead to stage 2 winner Elia Viviani.

“I had a good feeling today, especially after yesterday. I knew I was there. I knew the team was there," Cavendish said after the stage. "I can't beat Viviani in a track sprint race so I had to wait, wait and wait, and use my jump. Any time of the year, it's important to win. It's good for my account. Already with this win, I've won the same amount of races I won in the whole season last year. The thing I'm disappointed about is that yesterday, when I realized I couldn't win, had I kept going, I would have come second and be in the lead now. It's my own fault. But I'll try and get the blue jersey in the next two days."

With most of the sprinting talent keen to get an early win on the board, it was yet another frenetic sprint as rival trains jostled for position. Once again, Katusha-Alpecin and Quick-Step Floors dominated that particular battle coming into the final kilometres with Bahrain-Merida putting in a quick turn with Vincenzo Nibali.

With fewer teammates to assist him, Cavendish kept a low profile in the chaotic finale. He positioned himself nicely behind the train of Viviani, which Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) had also latched on. As Cavendish’s former leadout rider Fabio Sabatini moved off to the right, Viviani picked up the pace. Whereas he admitted to not having the speed to match Viviani on day two, Cavendish had no such problems here. He rounded both Colbrelli and Viviani to take a clear run up the middle of the road and take the victory.

Bouhanni had been lurking in Cavendish’s wheel after being set up nicely by his Cofidis squad. When Cavendish went, the Frenchman followed and held on for second place despite a late surge from Kittel. The Katusha-Alpecin rider has struggled in the sprints so far this year, and while he won’t be too happy to finish third, it is a step forward for him and his new team.

As it has been since the race started on Tuesday, a small break formed very early on in the day. Simone Bevilacqua (Willier), Mark Christian (Aqua Blue Sport), Loic Vliegen (BMC Racing Team) and Quentin Valognes (Team Novo Nordisk) broke clear, and with 100 kilometres still to run they had some three minutes on the peloton.

The past two stages have been a relatively straightforward affair with the chaos reserved for the final 10 kilometres of the day. The weather had other ideas for stage 3 with the wind picking up in the second half of the day. The resulting crosswinds caused some problems for the peloton, which split in two. Bouhanni was one of those who missed the cut and, at one point, was left trailing the peloton by over a minute. In the scramble, Groenewegen found himself in no man’s land with 68 kilometres to go. Several of his teammates dropped back to help him but he also utilised the slipstream of a team car to make it back to the bunch. The race jury deemed it was too much and later added 20 seconds to his time, putting him out of the race lead, and the top 10.

The push from the front of the peloton saw the lead of the four escapees decimated and they were brought back with more than 60 kilometres remaining. It would be almost 15 kilometres more before Bouhanni and his companions were able to re-join the peloton. A ceasefire appeared to be called by then and the peloton trundled along at a much easier pace for some time before Tom Bohli jumped clear with 30 kilometres remaining. The BMC Racing rider never stood a chance against the might of the sprinters’ teams and he was back in the comfort of the bunch with 13 kilometres to go.

Aside from a roundabout with three kilometres to go, the road to the line was wide and straight. That gave plenty of room for the sprinters and their trains to fight for position and they did just that with elbows and shoulders being liberally used up and down the peloton. Sabatini pulled Viviani into place with less than a kilometre to go, peeling off with 200 metres remaining to give his compatriot a free run to the line.

Viviani opened the afterburners, but he didn’t have the pace to match a determined Cavendish who sailed past him.

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