Mark Cavendish took the overall lead of the Abu Dhabi Tour by sprinting to victory on stage two at Al Marina.
Cavendish (Dimension Data) started the sprint in the slipstream of Elia Viviani (Team Sky) but sped past the Italian in the last 100m to claim his ninth win of the season.
He collected 10 bonus seconds for the victory and now moves to the top of the general classification, four seconds ahead of second-placed Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and five seconds ahead of third-placed Jens Keukeleire (Orica-BikeExchange).
Cavendish said: “I’m happy with that. We wanted to win today. I felt good. It was a very chaotic sprint in which I lost my lead-out in the second-last corner.
“I thought, ‘That’s it’, but we got back on. I had to brake at some stage. I was happy to be behind Sky in the last corner and pass them.”
Cavendish is almost certain to lose the leader’s red jersey on Saturday’s 150km third stage, which ends with a 10.8km climb to a summit finish on Jebel Hafeet.
He will then have a chance to claim a second win of the race on Sunday’s final stage, which is flat and takes place over 26 laps of the Yas Marina F1 circuit.
SKY SPORTS
