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In what’s an extremely essential yr for sprinting within the WorldTour peloton as Mark Cavendish makes an attempt to take a document thirty fifth Tour de France stage win, the Manxman continues his last season earlier than retirement on the UAE Tour.
Typically billed because the unofficial ‘sprinters World Championships’, the seven-day stage race has come to supply the yardstick for the quick males to beat come July. This version isn’t any totally different with 4 attainable possibilities at bunch finishes on levels 1, 4, 5 and 6.
Cavendish bought his season underway with victory on the Tour Colombia battling out with Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), however the checklist of riders set to start out in Abu Dhabi options not solely the Colombian however just about each different high sprinter in a stacked discipline.
Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Dylan Groenwegen (Jayco AlUla) are all all the way down to race and have already scored victories in 2024.
Welsford and Merlier look the boys to beat after the Aussie dominated the Tour Down under sprints and the Belgian bought off to a flying begin with two victories on the AlUla Tour. Merlier was the perfect sprinter within the UAE final yr with two victories.
They may face stiff competitors from Cavendish and Groenewegen, whereas Kooij is one-from-one after profitable the Clasica de Almeria. A Giro d’Italia debut in Could is the focus of his season and the Dutch sprinter has turn out to be one of the constant quick finishers within the bunch with 13 wins in 2023.
However the top-quality begin checklist isn’t accomplished but as Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers), Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Staff Emirates) and Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) may also be attempting to get their lead-out trains so as.
Phases 4, 5 and 6 provide apparent possibilities for a bunch dash ought to there be no crosswind motion, however echelons shall be favoured by the likes of Cavendish, Merlier and Bauhaus – all of them made the crosswind-split transfer on stage 1 of the 2023 race.
With a 90-degree nook and sweeping right-hand bend characterising the dash finales on levels 4 and 6, anticipate the lead-out abilities of Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe), Michael Mørkov (Astana Qazaqstan), Bert Van Lerberghe (Soudal-QuickStep) and Luka Mezgec (Jayco AlUla) to be simply as carefully monitored. Such a excessive amount and high quality of sprinters means the piloting work earlier than shall be simply as essential because the ending job.
The one drawback for Cavendish and Co. is that the statistical and possible primary sprinter on the planet from final yr – Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) received’t be current with the greater than succesful Kaden Groves taking Alpecin’s dash spot because the Belgian takes on Opening Weekend.
Cavendish was robbed of understanding whether or not he may maintain off the Belgian on stage 7 of final yr’s Tour resulting from mechanical points earlier than his unlucky crash only a day later compelled him to postpone retirement and are available again for another season.
He’s carried out it earlier than, in fact, at each the Tour and within the UAE on stage 2 of the 2022 version, however Philipsen was solely bested in July by Mads Pedersen on a gruelling uphill drag to the road in Limoges and Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the ultimate stage into Paris. That battle must wait till summer season.
The general classification of the UAE Tour, in the meantime, appears more likely to be selected Jebel Hafeet, and with the startlist as its at present billed, Adam Yates appears to be the principle to beat within the absence of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Staff Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
With that in thoughts, all eyes shall be on the sprinters.
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