Mark Cavendish beat opening day’s hero Jasper Philipsen to take Stage Two of the UAE Tour on Monday.
The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider prevailed by a wheel after a tense battle to the line in the final 100 metres in the second of the four sprint stages of the seven-day race.
UAE team Emirates’ German rider Pascal Ackermann took third place over the 176-kilometre flat course which began at Hudayriyat Island and finished at Abu Dhabi Breakwater.
Cavendish thus recorded his second win of the 2022 season, having already won a stage in the Tour of Oman two weeks ago.
“I'm just happy. I knew we could win here,” Cavendish said after the finish.
“A third of the team here are first year professionals and this is the first or second race of their career. Seeing how they rode today, they were like seasoned professionals, just after one day of talking how we didn't get it right yesterday.
“The job was to get me to the final as fresh as possible and they did that. Fortunately they did it so well that I could launch with 300 to 350m to go into a headwind.
“That's usually too far to go into a headwind but they delivered it so well that I knew I'd have the energy to keep it to the line.
“I was quite fortunate because I could feel Philipsen coming fast at me. We know he's in good form so I'm happy we could hold him off and take the win.”
Philipsen retained the red jersey for overall leader. Russian Dmitry Strakhov and Cavendish occupy second and third place ahead of Sam Bennett and Ackermann.
Having finished in the top 10 in stage one, Ackermann continued to impress. The UAE Team Emirates rider was guided in the final sprint by veteran lead-out specialist Maximiliano Richeze and picked up the pace in the final stretch before getting blocked in and unable to get past stage winner Cavendish.
Ackermann joined UAE Team Emirates this year and was called into the squad at the last minute as cover for Fernando Gaviria after the latter tested positive for Covid-19.
“It was a nervous start with a lot of wind so it was important to move together as a team and stay protected,” Ackermann said.
“After we survived the crosswind, we worked towards the sprint. Richeze did a great job and brought me up perfectly to the wheel of Cavendish.
“Unluckily I couldn’t finish it off because I got a bit blocked but I’m happy that we were able to be up with the other sprinters and it gives me confidence for the last two sprints that are coming. Now we’ll work towards the GC for the next couple of days.”
The nine-kilometre time trial in Ajman will bring the General Classification contenders into the picture on stage three of the race on Tuesday.
