Viviani edges out Groenewegen

Dubai : Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) collected the best birthday present he could wish for with victory on stage 2 of the Dubai Tour. The Italian, who turned 29 yesterday, edged out stage 1 winner Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Riccardo Minali (Astana) to take the spoils.

The stage was decided by another messy and chaotic sprint with none of the major leadout teams able to deliver their sprinter perfectly to the line. On stage 1 it was Groenewegen who picked his way through the crowd and 24 hours later it was Viviani who repeated the trick.

Viviani timed his acceleration perfectly, seeing off the challenge from Mark Cavendish (Dimenion Data) who took fourth, and then holding off a late charge from the faster-finishing Groenewegen.

Groenewegen remains the overall leader, with Viviani just two seconds in arrears.

BMC Racing’s Nathan Van Hooydonck once again made it into the break and collected enough bonus seconds to finish the stage third overall, nine seconds down on the overall leader.

“Having my birthday today added to my motivation. Losing yesterday was also good for my head,” explained Viviani.

“Overnight we felt like we missed one chance that would never be given back. I feel I’m in good condition and have the legs for winning. I had a mechanical but luckily it was with 20km to go and I had time to come back.”

For the second day in a row, Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) failed to deliver his lines when the spotlight shone in his direction.

The German rider had his team on the front for most of the stage, but they withdrew from the action in the closing stages only to rally with a desperate challenge inside the final two kilometres.