UAE Tour: Gaviria wins stage 2

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Fernando Gaviria gave UAE Team Emirates a victory on home soil on stage 2 of the inaugural UAE Tour, winning a bunch sprint in Abu Dhabi.

The Colombian had a luxury lead-out man in Alexander Kristoff and, after opening his sprint from range, held off former teammate Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in a close-fought contest. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) took the final place on the podium.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) finished safely in the peloton to retain the overall lead, though the race had earlier been split by coastal crosswinds before coming back together for a bunch gallop.

“The sprint was really difficult because there were a lot of strong riders,” said Gaviria. “My teammates did a really good job on the stage even in the wind. The peloton took it easy after the wind and it worked perfectly.

“I had a really good lead-out man with [Alexander] Kristoff. It’s not only good for me but for the team. UAE is a new country for me and is the sponsor for the team, it is important for the team and for me.”

Gaviria had started his season in style with two wins at the Vuelta a San Juan but was forced to abandon the Tour Colombia through illness. If there were some doubts over his shape coming to the UAE, they were wiped out emphatically here, along with any hint of doubt about whether Kristoff would be happy to sacrifice his chances and work for his younger teammate.

The team were quiet on the run-in but hit the front when it mattered in the final kilometre. Kristoff reached full sprint with Gaviria in the wheel and the 24-year-old didn’t wait long before opening the taps. Viviani, who also had two wins from the start of the season, had shown his track skills in fighting his up way onto Gaviria’s wheel, and stayed there for a little while before attempting to come around, but to no avail.

Ewan was unable to threaten the pair and finished a more distant third, with Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Sky) fourth and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) sixth behind his lead-out man Erik Baska. Sacha Modolo (EF Education First), Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FJD), and Jakub Mareczko (CCC Team) all made the top 10, while the likes of Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Merida), and Max Walscheid (Sunweb) were out of the picture.

Crosswinds

The race started out in relaxed fashion as a four-man breakaway quickly clipped off the front of the peloton and built a lead of 12 minutes. In there were two riders apiece from Novo Nordisk - Sam Brand and Charles Planet - and Gazpom-RusVelo - Igor Boev and Stepan Kuriyanov.

It was all calm for the first two hours but then the riders hit the exposed coastal roads by the Khalifa Port and the wind blew the field to pieces, sparking an hour of high-octane racing.

The breakaway quartet’s lead plummeted as the peloton formed into three groups. In the first were just 26 riders, including race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) as well as sprinters in Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal).

Back in the much larger second group were the rest of the big names, with the exception of Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) who was caught out in another group nearly three minutes back.

The gap between the first and second pelotons hung at around the minute-mark as the 26 out front all came through to take their turns and keep things rolling. They caught the breakaway with 75km to go, but by then the race had turned away from the exposed roads and a lull had already allowed the second peloton to get back to within touching distance. QuickStep finished the job and it was back together. The pace then slowed to such an extent that Porte’s group was also able to get back into contention.

“It was a typical race here with the wind. I was in the first group but in the end everything came together. I think we showed our guys are really strong and I thank them,” said Roglic.

The pace then dipped even lower, allowing Planet and Kuriyanov to head back out and build a lead of more than five minutes in a blink of an eye. Jumbo-Visma eventually called off the détente and started to control the gap from the front of the peloton, as the race made its way towards the finish in far more relaxed fashion. Movistar then took over, keeping Valverde safe until the 3km-to-go banner, before the sprint trains clicked into gear.

Sunweb, Bahrain, and Bora were all prominent, and FDJ led the way though the late right-hand bend that took the field into the final kilometre and into a headwind, but it was UAE who timed it right with their all-star duo. Viviani was a huge threat but Gaviria managed to sustain his powerful sprint into the wind, much to the delight of his team’s sponsors.

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