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UAE Tour stage 1 live coverage

UAE Tour stage 1 2022

(Image credit: RCS Sport)

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How to watch the 2022 UAE Tour – live TV and streaming

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Result

1 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 4:42:34

2 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe

3 Elia Viviani (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers

4 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) BikeExchange-Jayco

5 Emils Liepins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo

6 Arnaud Demare (Fra) Groupama-FDJ

7 Max Kanter (Ger) Movistar Team

8 Olav Kooij (Ned) Jumbo-Visma

9 Tom Devriendt (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

10 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) UAE Team Emirates

GC after stage 1

1 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 4:42:24

2 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:04

3 Dmitrii Strakhov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo

4 Elia Viviani (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:06

5 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane'

6 Xandres Vervloesem (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:08

7 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) BikeExchange-Jayco 0:00:10

8 Emils Liepins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo

9 Arnaud Demare (Fra) Groupama-FDJ

10 Max Kanter (Ger) Movistar Team

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the first WorldTour race of the 2022 season – the UAE Tour!

Today's first stage of the race takes the riders on a straight out and back course into the desert south of Madinat Zayed in the south of the country.

It's a very flat parcours today with no climbs on the way to the finish, so few obstacles for the sprinters.

QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, BikeExchange-Jayco, UAE Team Emirates and Astana Qazaqstan are all at the front of the peloton at the moment.

Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè have two men in the break with Luca Rastelli and Alessandro Tonelli. Gazprom-RusVelo also have two with Pavel Kochetkov and Dmitry Strakhov. Lotto Soudal's Xandres Vervloesem rounds off the quintet.

The five riders have a solid gap which is fluctuating at around the three-minute mark. 

Obviously, there's not a ton else going on at the moment...

It would take something bizarre to happen for today's breakaway riders to have any chance of winning the stage.

They're being kept on a relatively tight leash and numerous teams behind are working for the top lineup of sprinters at the race: Mark Cavendish, Dylan Groenewegen, Arnaud Démare, Pascal Ackermann, Sam Bennett, Jasper Philipsen, Elia Viviani...

Then you have Alberto Dainese and Cees Bol, Kaden Groves, Olav Kooij, Marc Sarreau, Marijn van den Berg, Rudy Barbier, Matteo Malucelli, Sacha Modolo...

There are a lot of sprinters here at the race with four days likely to end with bunch sprints. 

133km to go

Bahrain Victorious and UAE Team Emirates now at the front of the peloton in two separate trains.

125km to go

There has been an upping of pace in the peloton and now the break's advantage is down to 2:20.

The gap keeps coming down with Bahrain Victorious on the front. As they pass through the feed zone it's now 2:05.

Down to 1:50 now.

How to watch the 2022 UAE Tour – live TV and streaming

UAE Tour 2020 2nd Edition 5th stage Al Ain Jebel Hafeet 162 km 27022020 Tadej Pogacar SLO UAE Team Emirates photo Dario BelingheriBettiniPhoto2020

(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

115km to go

No one team really in control at the moment. 2:55 to the break now.

A look at some of the top contenders for today's stage... Not too many wins on the board just yet. Fabio Jakobsen – currently at the Volta ao Algarve – is the top sprinter of the year so far with four wins.

Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ): No wins at the Tour de la Provence

108km to go

Still a long way to go today. The moto camera pans out to show the vast expanse of desert ahead of the breakaway.

UAE Team Emirates have their squad lined up behind the the BikeExchange and QuickStep riders at the front of the peloton. Bardiani have a few riders up there too, playing spoiler.

100km to go

QuickStep have sent more men to the front now as the gap is steady at 3:20.

A couple of roundabouts for the riders, which break up the long and straight roads.

88km to go

Now they're set to turn back north to head back up to the finish.

3:05 between break and peloton now.

We'll have another sprint coming up in the not too distant future. The second intermediate sprint comes after 126km at Liwa.

75km to go

Around 10km to go until the intermediate sprint. The leader in that classification wears the black jersey here (black being one of the colours of the UAE flag).

The red jersey will go to the overall leader, the green jersey to the points classification leader, and the white jersey to the youth classification leader.

ABU DHABI UNITED ARAB EMIRATES FEBRUARY 21 Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and UAE Team Emirates Tony Gallopin of France and AG2R Citron Team The Peloton during the 3rd UAE Tour 2021 Stage 1 a 176km stage from Al Dhafra Castle to Al Mirfa UAE Flag UAETour on February 21 2021 in Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates Photo by Tim de WaeleGetty Images

(Image credit: Tim De Waele/Getty Images)

65km to go

Back to the racing and there are numerous teams at the front of the peloton at the moment – EF, Movistar, Ineos, Bahrain are all up there.

A look at the breakaway today.

MADINAT ZAYED UNITED ARAB EMIRATES FEBRUARY 20 Pavel Kochetkov of Russia and Team Gazprom Rusvelo Xandres Vervloesem of Belgium and Team Lotto Soudal Dmitrii Strakhov of Russia and Team Gazprom Rusvelo Luca Rastelli of Italy and Team Bardiani Csf Faizane Alessandro Tonelli of Italy and Team Bardiani Csf Faizane compete in the breakaway during the 4th UAE Tour 2022 Stage 1 a 184km stage from Madinat Zayed to Madinat Zayed UAETour WorldTour on February 20 2022 in Madinat Zayed United Arab Emirates Photo by Tim de WaeleGetty Images

(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

Two kilometres to go untl the break hit the second intermediate sprint of the day.

Strakhov duly takes the sprint in Liwa ahead of Tonelli. He's the intermediate sprint leader now and will don the black jersey at the end of the stage.

Strakhov now sits up from the peloton to change a front wheel.

There isn't much of an incentive for Strakhov to battle back to the breakaway now. Will he just sit up and drop back to the peloton?

Today's stage is the first of three held within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the southernmost of the UAE as well as by far the largest by area and second-largest by population.

UAE Tour Emirates map 2022

(Image credit: RCS Sport)

52km to go

1:10 for the breakaway now. Just four riders left as Strakhov didn't make it back.

It's a straight run all the way to the finish now. No obstacles of note and the finishing straight is flat, straight, long, and wide.

Sergio Samitier (Movistar) sees the moto camera pull up next to him and yawns. Yep.

44km to go

44 seconds for the breakaway. They won't be out front for too much longer now.

It's still all calm in the peloton at the moment.

Here's a shot of the peloton out in the sand dunes earlier today because there's basically nothing going on right now...

MADINAT ZAYED UNITED ARAB EMIRATES FEBRUARY 20 A general view of the Peloton passing through the desert during the 4th UAE Tour 2022 Stage 1 a 184km stage from Madinat Zayed to Madinat Zayed UAETour WorldTour on February 20 2022 in Madinat Zayed United Arab Emirates Photo by Tim de WaeleGetty Images

(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

32km to go

BikeExchange, Bahrain and QuickStep on the front of the peloton now. FDJ close behind.

Rastelli, Tonelli, Kochetkov and Vervloesem continue rolling along out front.

Crash in the peloton! Rick Zabel (Israel-Premier Tech) goes down but he's back up quickly.

A touch of wheels in the middle of the peloton. Zabel is the only man to hit the deck there.

He's still stood on the side of the road waiting for a new bike – his saddle is tilted way up after the crash.

24km to go

A reminder that we'll have live coverage from the final stage of the Volta ao Algarve later today, as well as reports and news from the finales of the Tour du Var, Vuelta a Andalucia and the Setmana Valenciana.

20km to go

No significant pace in the peloton at the moment. BikeExchange and QuickStep withe a few men up front.

The speed at the moment is just 40kph.

15km to go

The peloton looks more like a protest than a run-in to the end of a sprint stage at the moment. They're really dragging this one out...

Bardiani, Bahrain, QuickStep, FDJ, DSM, UAE are all spread across the road at the front of the peloton.

A bump in the middle of the peloton creates a ripple through the group though nobody goes down, thankfully.

10km to go

Not long to go now...

7km to go

QuickStep still in charge on the right with six men. 

Bora-Hansgrohe, meanwhile, are right at the back of the peloton at the moment.

5km to go

Five to go. It's nearly over.

Movistar and UAE are moving up now, too.

Mark Cavendish came out on top in our stage winner poll earlier on. 40% of votes for him, 15% for Philipsen, 24% for Bennett and 21% for other.

Now the QuickStep train is fully organised on the right. 

3km to go

2km to go

It's a mess of teams up there now. No clear lead out train.

1km to go

BikeExchange perhaps the most organised here.

QuickStep move up too.

The sprint launches at 250 to go!

Such a disorganised run-in. It looked like Bennett went first.

Philipsen came up on the nearside barriers, though, and he looks to have taken the win!

Bennett was second behind Philipsen with Viviani and Groenewegen close behind.

Cavendish was alongside Philipsen just before the sprint started but he had nowhere to go with his routes blocked off.

Philipsen, Bennett, Viviani were the top three at the line.

Philipsen after the finish...

"It was a prety fast finish. The last straight was more than 50km so we could see the finish from very far out. [I was] not confident at all. It was the first race of the season so you don't know how your shape is in comparison with the other teams. I'm really looking forward to move on and try to repeat the same as we did today. It won't always work out but it's good to win immediately and take the pressure off. We can be really proud of what we did."

UAE Tour 2022 4th Edition 1st stage Madinat Zayed Madinat Zayed 185 km 20022022 Jasper Philipsen BEL Alpecin Fenix photo Luca BettiniSprintCyclingAgency2022

(Image credit: Luca BettiniSprintCyclingAgency2022)

Here's the top 10 on the stage...

9 Tom Devriendt (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

And here's the first GC of the 2022 WorldTour...

5 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane'

Philipsen takes the plaudits after the stage.

Our live racing coverage continues today with all the action from the final stage of the Volta ao Algarve.

Our report page is up here with a brief report and results. Check back for a full report on today's stage 1 action.

Tomorrow will be another chance for the sprinters to battle for victory as they race 176 kilometres from Hudayriyat Island to Abu Dhabi Breakwater. 

It's another very flat day out, so don't expect too much action throughout the stage, but be sure to join us for more comprehensive live coverage of the action!

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