Abu Dhabi Tour 2018 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE]

February 22, 2018

Abu Dhabi Tour 2018 – Stage 2 – Yas Mall – Yas Beach : 154 km

The 2018 Abu Dhabi Tour is a road cycling stage race that is taking place between 21 and 25 February 2018 in Abu Dhabi. It is the fourth edition of the Abu Dhabi Tour and the third event of the 2018 UCI World Tour.

Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) won an easy sprint on the second stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour, also taking the race lead. Second on the day went to Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) with Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) third.

The win moved Viviani to the top of the GC, tied on time with now-second-ranked Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), with Van Poppel in third at four seconds.

“I need to break the ice on the first day of a stage race. Usually, I don’t win the first sprint. It’s been the case again but I was very confident today. Also in the echelons, I felt strong and I was willing to pull. We had Julian Alaphilippe and Enric Mas in the front group,” Viviani said.

“It was good for our GC but we also wanted to win the stage, so I asked the guys to wait for me and close the gap. When we regrouped with 20km to go, I said we put all our efforts into the last corner. The young Alvaro Hodeg is unbelievable in his preparation for my sprint. Michael Morkov is always in the right place and I trust Fabio Sabatini 100 per cent for the lead out. With such a team, it was easy for me to finish it off.”

A five-man break group dominated the first half of the race, but they were caught again at the feed zone. Movistar and Katusha-Alpecin took advantage of crosswinds to rip the race wide open, dropping not only race leader Alexander Kristoff (UAE Emirates) but several GC candidates. After a furious chase, the race finally came back together within the final 20 kilometers, leading to the expected mass sprint finish.

Stage 2 – a 154km race from Vas Mall to Vas Beach – offered barely a bump on the road. Shortly after the start, Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani CSF), Joey Rosskopf (BMC), Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Alexander Porsev (Gazprom Rusvelo) and the seemingly tireless Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk) formed the group of the day.

Their gap topped out at four minutes as the peloton was unwilling to let them get too far away. The advantage started coming down after the halfway point as the field picked up the pace.

The sprinters’ teams put on the pressure as they all charged into the feed zone, with the gap dropping dramatically. With 47km left, Katusha led the thundering herd past the break group.

Crosswinds came into play, and the leading teams continued to push the pace as hard as possible. The tactics worked, as the field was quickly strung out and riders were rapidly dropped.

A number of top riders were caught out, with race leader Alexander Kristoff (UAE Emirates) and GC favourite Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) in the second group. Fabio Aru (UAE Emirates), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Marcel Kittel (Katusha) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) were all in the first group and doing their best to keep at 30 seconds.

The second and third groups came together and rode furiously, but the gap stayed steady at around 30 seconds as the fast and furious action continued. With just under 23km to go the pace dropped up front and the Kristoff-Dumoulin group came within sight of the leaders. They hooked on again with around 18 km remaining. Movistar and Katusha remained at the head of the field, driving hard. The sprint trains were all on track going under the 1km marker. Quick-Step lead the way before LottoNL-Jumbo moved to the front. Ackermann was the first to jump, but both Viviani and Van Poppel powered their ways past him.

Results :
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 3:15:30
2 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
3 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky
5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
6 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb
7 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
8 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
9 Rudy Barbier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
11 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
12 Alex Frame (NZl) Trek-Segafredo
13 Robert Wagner (Ger) LottoNL-Jumbo
14 Michael Gogl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo
15 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
16 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
17 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
18 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
19 Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Quick-Step Floors
20 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team
21 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
22 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors
23 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
24 Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
25 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
26 Daniel McLay (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
27 José Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
28 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors
29 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
30 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
31 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
32 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
33 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
34 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
35 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
36 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
37 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
38 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
39 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
40 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
41 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
42 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
43 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky
44 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team
45 Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
46 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
47 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
48 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
49 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb
50 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Trek-Segafredo
51 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
52 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Movistar Team
53 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
54 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Mitchelton-Scott
55 Jos van Emden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
56 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF
57 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
58 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
59 Davide Villella (Ita) Astana Pro Team
60 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
61 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott
62 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
63 Gijs Van Hoecke (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
64 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
65 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
66 Daniel Moreno (Spa) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
67 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team
68 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
69 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF
70 Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF
71 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team
72 Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
73 Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
74 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
75 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
76 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
77 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
78 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
79 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott
80 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF
81 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Movistar Team
82 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
83 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky
84 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
85 Remy Mertz (Bel) Lotto Soudal
86 Leonardo Basso (Ita) Team Sky
87 Kim Magnusson (Swe) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
88 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
89 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
90 James Knox (GBr) Quick-Step Floors
91 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo
92 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data
93 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin
94 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:00:18
95 Roger Kluge (Ger) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:20
96 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:23
97 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
98 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:31
99 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:35
100 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:50
101 Jack Bauer (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott
102 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:55
103 Matthias Brändle (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:14
104 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:36
105 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:04:07
106 Clement Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
107 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) BMC Racing Team
108 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team
109 Sam Brand (GBr) Team Novo Nordisk
110 Bjorg Lambrecht (Bel) Lotto Soudal
111 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
112 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
113 Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
114 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
115 Michael Bresciani (Ita) Bardiani CSF
116 Victor De La Parte (Spa) Movistar Team
117 Sebastian Henao (Col) Team Sky
118 Artem Nych (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
119 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
120 Manuele Mori (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
121 Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
122 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
123 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
124 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
125 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
126 Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
127 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
128 Scott Davies (GBr) Dimension Data
129 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
130 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
131 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
132 Hendrikus van Ijzendoorn (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
133 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo
134 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
135 Evgeny Shalunov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
136 Marco Maronese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
137 Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:13

General Classification after Stage 2 :
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 8:03:44
2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
3 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:04
4 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:06
5 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:07
7 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo
8 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF
9 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:00:08
10 José Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:09
11 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:10
12 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky
13 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb
14 Rudy Barbier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
15 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
16 Daniel McLay (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
17 Alex Frame (NZl) Trek-Segafredo
18 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team
19 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
20 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
21 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
22 Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
23 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
24 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
25 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
26 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
27 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
28 Michael Gogl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo
29 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
30 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
31 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
32 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb
33 Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data
34 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
35 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Mitchelton-Scott
36 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
37 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
38 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
39 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
40 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
41 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
42 Leonardo Basso (Ita) Team Sky
43 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
44 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
45 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
46 Alexandre Geniez (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
47 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
48 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Movistar Team
49 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
50 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
51 Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF
52 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors
53 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky
54 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF
55 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors
56 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
57 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
58 Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
59 Davide Villella (Ita) Astana Pro Team
60 Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
61 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
62 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
63 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
64 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team
65 Jos van Emden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
66 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
67 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team
68 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
69 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Trek-Segafredo
70 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin
71 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky
72 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team
73 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
74 Gijs Van Hoecke (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
75 Kim Magnusson (Swe) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
76 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
77 Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
78 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott
79 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
80 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
81 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data
82 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Movistar Team
83 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
84 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott
85 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:24
86 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:25
87 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:30
88 Daniel Moreno (Spa) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
89 Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:31
90 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:33
91 Robert Wagner (Ger) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:34
92 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:45
93 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:00:49
94 Roger Kluge (Ger) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:54
95 Jack Bauer (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:00
96 Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal
97 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb
98 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:05
99 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:10
100 Matthias Brändle (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:24
101 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:06
102 Remy Mertz (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:02:07
103 James Knox (GBr) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:10
104 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:36
105 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:04:13
106 Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
107 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:04:15
108 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:04:16
109 Michael Bresciani (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:04:17
110 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
111 Bjorg Lambrecht (Bel) Lotto Soudal
112 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
113 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
114 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) BMC Racing Team
115 Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
116 Clement Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
117 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
118 Marco Maronese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
119 Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
120 Artem Nych (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
121 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
122 Niklas Eg (Den) Trek-Segafredo
123 Sam Brand (GBr) Team Novo Nordisk
124 Sebastian Henao (Col) Team Sky
125 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
126 Victor De La Parte (Spa) Movistar Team
127 Manuele Mori (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
128 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
129 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
130 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
131 Scott Davies (GBr) Dimension Data
132 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
133 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
134 Hendrikus van Ijzendoorn (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
135 Evgeny Shalunov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
136 Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:23
137 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:05:29