Kittel edges Cavendish; Haddi clinches sprint honours

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Kittel edges Cavendish; Haddi clinches sprint honours
Marcel Kittel

Dubai - Stirring finish to 179km Dubai-Fujairah first stage of third Dubai Tour

by

Moni Mathews

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Published: Thu 4 Feb 2016, 2:32 PM

German ace Marcel Kittel powered by the splendid pace making of his teammates from Etixx-Quick-Step, won the first stage of the third edition of the Dubai Tour, Wednesday afternoon.
In the 179km Dubai-Fujairah leg (Dubai Silicon Oasis Stage), Kittel crossed the line first where all the top finishers in the lead bunch were home in the same time frame though it was not a photo finish, ahead of Briton Mark Cavendish, the defending champion, of Dimension Data, in 3 hours 35 minutes and 21 seconds. Giacomo Nizzolo of Italy riding for Trek-Segafredo came third.
Moroccan sprint specialist Soufine Haddi (Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling team) did great work in the intermediate sprints to be ahead of the field. In the second burst for the sprint honours, 3km away from Fujairah city, he edged out the lead pack and immediately after topping the category, peeled away from the rest of the race.
The first stage began at the Dubai International Marine Club at 10.30am, and all the 124 riders, representing 16 teams, finished the event.
"There can be no better way to start proceedings with a first stage win of the new season in a sprint version Tour like this. A lot of talking and discussions went onto our strategy for the day and the way it came out today morning and afternoon (Wednesday) was great," Kittel said, before receiving his prize and the leader's jersey for the day's superb work on the Dubai-Fujairah stretch that covered the slopes and downhills of the mountainous regions in Fujairah after the Dubai run on the highways.
Haddi said: "The groundwork and time given to prepare before this event certainly helped and I got good pace making support from my teammates, which made all the difference in the end."
In road trial tests of the kind we are witnessing in the Dubai Tour, there are two packs mainly, one way upfront going in for the intermediary sprints like the one Haddi came tops in. Then when the sprint aces drop out for the sheer energy spent for the all-out bursts at the prescribed stages, the second pack, eyeing overall honours and the final home stretch burst, go flat out in the final 3km or less stage.
At the half way stage, the early pace making was mainly orchestrated by BMC Racing Team and Dimension Data. With 82.6km of the stage over with an average slope percentage of four, the lead group averaged 44.4km/hr, with hardly any space between the riders. The trailing pack were about three minutes adrift at this point.
With 105km completed, the lead bunch saw keen tussles when there was nothing much to speak of in terms of gaps. The second pack's averages remained almost the same despite the gradual upward gradient in many places on a day which saw temperatures vary around the pleasant 20-21 degrees celcius mark.
In the final phases in Fujairah city there were a couple of road repair areas and speed breakers, slowing the race at times, but the final u-turn and the home stretch saw Kittel go all out from the outside to pip the aspirations of the field led by Cavendish.
moni@khaleejtimes.com 
Results (top five, all same time)
1.        Marcel Kittel (Ger), Etixx-Quick-Step, 3hr 35min 21 sec
2.        Mark Cavendish (Britain), Dimension Data
3.        Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita), Trek-Segafredo
4.        Sacha Modolo (Ita), Lampre-Merida
5.        Andrea Palini (Ita), Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team  
Today (Thursday):
Dubai > Palm Jumeirah (Atlantis) 188km with turnarounds
Friday
Dubai > Hatta Dam 172km
Saturday
Dubai > Burj Khalifa 132km Total distance - 671 km, including Wednesday's first stage
 


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