Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) held off Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) to clinch victory on opening stage of the UAE Tour.
It was Mitchelton-Scott who led the sprint onto the final straight, attempting to set things up for Luka Mezgec. But it wasn’t enough.
With Ewan and Rudy Barbier starting to pick up their pace, Ackermann powered further ahead of his rivals to clinch his second win of the year after victory at the Clasica de Almeria last week.
I’m super happy with this victory because almost all the top sprinters are here and I wasn’t sure if my shape was good enough to beat them all,” Ackermann said soon after the finish.
“Now I know that my shape is good and we can take it easy the next few days and have a look at what goes on during the week.
??@Ackes171 of ??@BORAhansgrohe wins stage 1 of ??@uae_tour #UAETour (?@OnAwaan) pic.twitter.com/z3c4ybBlBO
— World Cycling Stats (@wcsbike) February 23, 2020
UAE Tour 2020 – stage 1 results (The Pointe – Dubai Silicon Oasis):
| 1 | Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) | 3:29:19 |
| 2 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 3 | Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation) | ,, |
| 4 | Dylan Groenwegen (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 5 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 6 | Alberto Dainese (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 7 | Jakub Mareczko (CCC) | ,, |
| 8 | Max Walscheid (NTT) | ,, |
| 9 | Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) | ,, |
| 10 | Andrea Vendrame (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
UAE Tour 2020 – general classification after stage 1:
| 1 | Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) | 3:29:09 |
| 2 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | +04” |
| 3 | Veljko Stojnic (Vini Zabu-KTM) | +05” |
| 4 | Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation) | +06” |
| 5 | Leonardo Tortomasi (Vini Zabu-KTM) | ,, |
| 6 | Nikolay Cherkasov (Gazprom-RusVelo) | +07” |
| 7 | Dylan Groenwegen (Jumbo-Visma) | +10” |
| 8 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 9 | Alberto Dainese (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 10 | Jakub Mareczko (CCC) | ,, |
