Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) opened his account on stage 1 of the Dubai Tour with a comprehensive victory over his sprint rivals.
The Dutchman was delivered perfectly to the line by his teammates and claimed the opening stage ahead of Magnus Cort (Astana) and Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors).
The 167-kilometer route traveled around Dubai, situated on the Persian Gulf, and finished on Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island that’s shaped like a palm tree.
Three riders broke away from the peloton early and they were quickly joined by two others. The group kept the peloton at bay for much of the race.
The break’s last two survivors, Andrew Fenn (Aqua Blue Sport) and Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk), were caught about 10km from the finish line.
Groenewegen leads Nielsen by 4 seconds and has a 6-second advantage over Viviani in the overall standings.
Wednesday’s stage 2 will travel 190km on flat roads from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah.
“Quick-Step made it a very hard sprint by setting a high speed from far out, but I launched my sprint with 200m to go. It was very tight at the end but went in my favor,” Groenewegen said.
Dubai Tour 2018 – stage 1 results (Skydive Dubai – Palm Jumeirah):
| 1 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) | 3:51:35 |
| 2 | Magnus Cort (Astana) | ,, |
| 3 | Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 4 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 5 | Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 6 | Jacob Hennessy (Mitchelton-BikeExchange) | ,, |
| 7 | Eric Young (Rally Cycling) | ,, |
| 8 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 9 | Andrea Peron (Novo Nordisk) | ,, |
| 10 | Loic Vliegen (BMC) | ,, |
