Abu Dhabi // Elia Viviani has recent form in upstaging more renowned riders.
In September, during the Tour of Britain, he upended a widely anticipated battle between Mark Cavendish and the German Andre Greipel, out-sprinting both while they were busy dealing with each other in the opening stage.
On the second stage of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour, while eyes were elsewhere, he powered past the world champion Peter Sagan at the death in another compelling sprint finish.
It was another close miss for Sagan.
On Thursday, the Italian Andrea Guardini had thrust past him 250 metres out from the finish.
In the Capital Stage, as the peloton entered the final few hundred metres in front of Yas Mall, it appeared as if Sagan might win his first stage in the rainbow jersey the world champion wears.
But Viviani got in behind him as the sprint opened up and then sped round him to go through for an impressive eighth win of the season, including a stage win at Dubai.
That is already an impressive return on the investment of Team Sky, whom he joined this year.
“I am riding strongly in this final part of the season, and the support from my team has been excellent,” Viviani said. “Yesterday, the team worked all day, but I lost position on the final corner and I had to make up too much ground to make the top three.
“Today, we decided to do no work, and to leave me two teammates for the lead-out.
“About one kilometre from the finish, I had to make a big effort to get on Sagan’s wheel.”
On the final corner, he said, Skydive Dubai’s Andrea Palini and another rider moved on the inside, “but I did not like the look of it and held back. Sagan went, and I knew I had to wait, but not too long because he is so strong.
Viviani is a sprinter to the core and currently in the form of his life: the stage win against Cavendish was one of three on the Tour of Britain.
In May, he won a stage at the Giro d’Italia, which he had explicitly targeted when he joined Team Sky.
“Sprinting is my job and I am delighted to have taken another win,” he said. “The conditions today were considerably better than yesterday, and it was a good day for me and the team.”
The win – and a seventh-place finish on Thursday’s first stage – left Viviani holding the red and green jersey as the overall and points leader in the race.
Sagan was rueful after the finish, though he also added that he was happy for Viviani.
Not long ago, they had been teammates at Liquigas-Doimo.
“He’s sprinter, so it’s normal (that he out-sprinted him). Everybody is doing their own tricks,” Sagan said. “He’s good, Elia is very good, he’s won very good races.
“Earlier, Viviani was my teammate, so I’m happy for him.”
But he did also look more up for it than he had on the first stage, conceding that he had been more relaxed on Thursday.
He had cheered up considerably by the time of the presentation ceremony.
He won the stage’s white jersey, sponsored by The National, as the best young rider in the stage. Given how long he has been around and the larger-than-life aura that he possesses, it is worth remembering he is only 25.
The stage, which began at the Yas Marina Circuit and looped through the city to end back at Yas Mall, was not without incident.
Six riders broke away as early as the 4km mark, though the lead never grew to more than two minutes. In lower temperatures, the pace was considerably higher than on Thursday.
At the first intermediate sprint, back at the Yas Marina, things heated up.
Paul Voss, who won the intermediate sprint classification on the first stage, was part of a collision for which he was eventually disqualified – under UCI regulations, it was for an “act of violence”.
Officials declined to give specifics.
At 70km, Tom Boonen of Etixx-Quick-Step was involved in a crash that saw him taken to hospital for treatment.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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