A late headwind meant a lot of chopping and changing at the front of the peloton coming towards the end of UAE Tour stage 2 today. Sam Bennett missed out and was forced to settle for a top 10 placing. Victory went to Fernando Gaviria.
Sam Bennett has finished 6th on stage 2 of UAE Tour after the sprint finish was won by Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).
The Colombian won from Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal).
Primož Roglič, whose Jumbo-Visa won yesterday's opening TTT, retains the leader's jersey with an uphill finish tomorrow.
Sam Bennett was well placed in the wheels of his Bora-hansgrohe team, close to the front of the peloton, with about 5km remaining today.
At that point Pete Kennaugh was on the front, alongside sprint trains from QuickStep, Bahrain-Merida and Movistar; the latter riding to keep Alejandro Valverde out of trouble.
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However, while Bennett was among his team formation for a period close to the front as the finish approached, with 3km remaining the head of the bunch became swamped as more teams moved up.
And when Groupama-FDJ put in a surge up the right of the peloton with about 1.5km to go, they darted slightly ahead of the main field and in the scramble for their wheels the front of the bunch was re-arranged.
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? @FndoGaviria ?? @TeamUAEAbuDhabi ha ganado la 2ª etapa del @uae_tour ??#CICLISMOxESPN
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— Pasión Ciclismo ?? (@pasiociclismo) February 25, 2019
Sam Bennett appeared to lose out at that point; becoming detached from his team mates and finding himself back the bunch a little.
However, he was still in contention and in the wheel of Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) on the Irishman's wheel.
Deep inside the final kilometre Alexander Kristoff opened it up very early, leading out his team mate Gaviria.
And at that point, the front of the bunch was again reshuffled into the headwind. This time Bennett lost out and he could not recover.
Eric Baska tried his best for him in the sprint; indeed he finished 5th and just one place ahead of the Irishman.
But in the end the sprint played out in front of Bennett. And while he picked off a number of riders just before the finish line, he was forced to accept 6th on the day.
Gaviria won a very close battle with Viviani; a victory for Dan Martin's team in what is his sponsor's home tour.
Kittel's poor sprint meant Bennett found himself on the wrong wheel as the final dash to the line opened up.
And when Kristoff pulled over and came back through the head of the bunch, clashing with Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), the Norwegian got in Bennett's way a little.
Ewan had earlier been bumped by Viviani in what was a robust sprint finish in a bunched up peloton into the headwind.
The racing heads into the climbs tomorrow, with an uphill finish that may suit general classification hope Dan Martin. He finished in the peloton today.
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