UAE Tour 2019: Stage 1
Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 1 of the UAE Tour. Today's stage is 16km team time trial.
Nibali, Valverde, Gaviria and Cavendish line up for first-ever UAE Tour - Preview
Stars assemble for the inaugural UAE Tour – Gallery
As we go live the riders are warming up and studying the 16km circuit in Abu Dhabi.
It is going to be a fast opening stage.
The team time trial, entirely on the island of Hudayriat, has a very fast course, with straights punctuated only by two U-turns just before and after km 3.
The road is perfectly flat, wide and with wide-angle turns that will enable the teams to keep a very high speed: expected speed averages are over 55km/h.
This is the start list times. All times are local (GMT+4).
The team start at five minute intervals.
1. GAZPROM – RUSVELO GAZ 14:50:00
2. TEAM NOVO NORDISK TNN 14:55:00
3. UAE TEAM EMIRATES UAD 15:00:00
4. MITCHELTON – SCOTT MTS 15:05:00
5. EF EDUCATION FIRST EF1 15:10:00
6. TEAM DIMENSION DATA DDD 15:15:00
7. BORA – HANSGROHE BOH 15:20:00
8. TEAM KATUSHA ALPECIN 15:25:00
9. AG2R LA MONDIALE ALM 15:30:00
10. BAHRAIN – MERIDA TBM 15:35:00
11. TEAM JUMBO – VISMA TJV 15:40:00
12. ASTANA PRO TEAM AST 15:45:00
13. MOVISTAR TEAM MOV 15:50:00
14. GROUPAMA – FDJ GFC 15:55:00
15. TREK – SEGAFREDO TFS 16:00:00
16. LOTTO SOUDAL LTS 16:05:00
17. CCC TEAM CPT 16:10:00
18. TEAM SKY SKY 16:15:00
19. TEAM SUNWEB SUN 16:20:00
20. DECEUNINCK-QUICK-STEP 16:25:00
Sadhbh O'Shea is in the UAE for Cyclingnews and has told us there is a slight breeze blowing across the course, with temperatures of 30C.
Next up are Novo Nordisk and then the WorldTour teams start, with UAE Team Emirates and Mitchelton-Scott.
The wide roads allow the riders to form an echelon formation to help fight the wind.
Pacing and TTT skills will be decisive today.
Novo Nordisk start their ride. They're promoting the treatment of diabetes in the UAE with their presence.
Several sections of the course share one road and so the width narrows, adding an extra tactical twist.
Bora set off for the 16km TTT. Their team leader is Davide Formolo, with Pete Kennaugh chasing stage victories.
Katusha is off next. They will be hoping to place Kittel well up the GC to perhaps take the lead after Monday's stage.
They could even win today.
Here come Dimension Data. They set a time of 17: 17
That's fast but miss out of top spot by 2 seconds.
Bahrain-Merida set off, with new signing Rohan Dennis leading the line of riders.
Dennis will give Bahrain some huge power and skills for the TTT.
Jumbo-Visma set off.
They have Roglic, Jos van Emden and Tony Martin in their squad and so one of the favourites to win today.
Bahrain-Merida look well drilled as they blast around the course.
They set 11:13 at the intermediate time and so are fastest so far.
Movistar are next to start.
Valverde will be hoping they limit any losses to keep him in contention overall.
CCC Team is next off.
Greg van Avermaet is back in Belgium after riding the Tour of Oman.
Team leader is sprinter Jakub Mareczko.
Team Sky is off next. Can they be a threat to Jumbo-Visma?
They have Moscon, Kwiatkowski but not Froome in their line-up.
Trek-Segafredo are not fast enough. Tenth fastest.
They set 17:31 That will be a handicap for Porte and Mollema.
They lost a chunk of time to their GC rivals.
Deceuninck-QuickStep are off.
They will be fast as they try to set up Viviani for a shot at the race lead and protect Remco Evenepoel.
The Jumbo riders congratulate and hug each other.
This is a big win for the team and sets them up for a great week and the GC at the UAE Tour.
Thanks to crossing the line first, Roglic leads the GC, ahead of his teammates Laurens de Plus, Jos van Emden and Koen Bouwman.
Roglic pull on the red jersey. Jumbo do not have a sprinter at the UAE Tour and so will no doubt be chasing overall victory with the Slovenian rider.
Looking further down the results, we can see how many seconds some of the GC contenders lost to Roglic.
Dumoulin is only seven seconds down on Roglic. Nibali, Caruso and Dennis are at 9 seconds, Kwiatkowski is at 14 seconds and Valverde is at 18 seconds.
Other riders are further back and so will race with a significant handicap.
Van Garderen of EF is at 26 seconds, Formolo of Bora is at 29 seconds and Meintjes is at 29 seconds.
UAE and Dan Martin is at 36 seconds, while Mollema and Porte are at 43 seconds.
Zakarin is at 45 seconds after Katusha appeared to have problems in the TTT.
Roglic said:
“It was a very fast time trial and of course we're very happy to start the season with this performance."
"We came here with strong time trialists. We didn't really decided that I'd cross the line first but I took a strong turn at the end."
"It's nice to be in the lead and we want to win the race overall, but there are hard stages to come and we have to take it day by day."
Thanks for joining us for full live coverage of the opening stage of the UAE Tour.
We'll have full live coverage of all the stages of the race.
To follow our live coverage of the Volta ao Algarve and see if Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) can win overall, click here.
We'll also have full reports and photo galleries from the Tour du Haut Var in France, the Ruta del Sol in Spain and the women's Setmana Valenciana.
Our reporters are in the UAE, Spain and Portugal gathering news and exclusive interviews. Check back later on Cyclingnews for those.
Join us on Monday for live coverage from stage 2 of the UAE Tour.
It's expected to end with a high-speed sprint on the Abu Dhabi Marina.
Shukran! اﺮﻜﺷ
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