Marcel Kittel powered to a second stage victory at the Dubai Tour after another bunch kick in the Emirates.
The German backed up his success on stage one as he took top honours in Ras al Khaimah, getting the measure of Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina) in the process.
“Today was a difficult one. The final was different and tricky, and as a result there wasn’t an opportunity to stretch out the peloton, but adapting to different race situations shows the strength of the team. The guys did once again an incredible job, Fabio brought me to the front when it mattered, Matteo kept the speed high, and I jumped from wheel to wheel and managed to take the victory. It’s nice to win also like this”, said Kittel.
Following his perfectly-timed sprint, which brought also important bonus seconds, the 28-year-old rider of Quick-Step Floors will start stage 3 (Dubai – Al Aqah, 200 kilometers) with an 8-second advantage over his closest rival in the GC, a buffer which could provide important at the end of the race: “To have seven stage victories here is nice. As I said at the beginning of the week, Dubai has always been good to me. The race is not over, and our goal is to keep on working and take it day by day as good as possible. We’ll see how things pan out.”
Dubai Tour 2017 – stage 2 results (Dubai – Ras al Khaimah):
| 1 | Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) | 4:06:33 |
| 2 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 3 | Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina) | ,, |
| 4 | John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 5 | Sacha Modolo (UAE Abu Dhabi) | ,, |
| 6 | Juan Jose Lobato (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 7 | Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 8 | Riccardo Minali (Astana) | ,, |
| 9 | Marco Maronese (Bardiani – CSF) | ,, |
| 10 | Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue Sport) | ,, |
