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.
We currently have 140 kilometres to go of the 184-kilometre day.
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.
We do already have a breakaway at 2:50 up the road.
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
2:50 is the current advantage for the break. The same teams continue to work on the front of the peloton.
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.
Now the gap has gone back up to 2:25 as the peloton knocks off the pace a little. Still the same five men out front sharing the work.
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.
Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl): Stage win at the Tour of Oman
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix): 2022 season debut
Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates): No wins in nine race days
Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers): Stage win at the Tour de la Provence
Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe): 2022 season debut
Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco): Two stages at the Saudi Tour
Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ): No wins at the Tour de la Provence
108km to go
In the meantime, the gap has gone out to four minutes, the most it has been all stage long.
BikeExchange and QuickStep have a man each on the front of the peloton now.
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
3:20 is the gap now.
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
The break hits the first of two intermediate sprints today and Strakhov takes it over Tonelli and Vervloesem.
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
1:40 for the breakaway now after the peloton upped the pace.
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.
The colours of the flag are the Pan-Arab colours widely used around the Arab world, with each colour representing different dynasties and Caliphates through history.
Red represents the Hashemite dynasty (and courage, braveness, strength, unity), white the Umayyad dynasty (cleanliness, honesty, peace), green Rashinud Caliphate (hope, love, joy), black the Abbasid dynasty (defeating enemies, strength of mind).
(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.
1:25 to the break.
A look at the breakaway today.
(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.
1:50 back to the peloton.
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.
Stage 2 and 7 will also take plae in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven Emirates of the UAE.
Stage 6 takes place in Dubai, and the stage 3 time trial takes place in Ajman, the smallest Emirate. The remaining three stages are run across the Emirates of Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah.
(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...
30 seconds gap with 38km to go.
(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
35 kilometres to go on stage 1 of the #UAETour and it's all set for a sprint finish with Cavendish, Philipsen, Bennett, Ackermann, Viviani, Démare, Groenewegen and more competing. Who will win today?https://t.co/RQsJNxz2b3February 20, 2022
32km to go
Under 30 seconds for the breakaway now.
BikeExchange, Bahrain and QuickStep on the front of the peloton now. FDJ close behind.
20 seconds to the break.
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
11 seconds for the breakaway now.
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
Rastelli, Tonelli, Kochetkov and Vervloesem are caught by the peloton. Break over.
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
DSM and QuickStep on the right-hand side of the road as the pace ups to 55kph.
Not long to go now...
7km to go
QuickStep still in charge on the right with six men.
Ineos and Bahrain are up front next to them.
Bora-Hansgrohe, meanwhile, are right at the back of the peloton at the moment.
5km to go
Five to go. It's nearly over.
Still the same mix of teams up front, with EF and Jumbo also up there now.
Movistar and UAE are moving up now, too.
Bora still not up there.
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.
Bahrain, Jumbo, Ineos all mixed together up the middle as the pace ups close to 70kph.
3km to go
Bahrain leads the way. Israel-Premier Tech take over now.
2km to go
Bora still not up there at the moment.
Just a long, straight, wide road to the line.
It's a mess of teams up there now. No clear lead out train.
1km to go
BikeExchange and FDJ up ther now. Bora move up on the left.
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 went to the right, hugging the barriers. He closed the door on Groenewegen, who had to let up to prevent a crash. No question of a dirty move or deviation though.
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."
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!
