Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) won the opening stage of the Dubai Tour in Fujairah, beating Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) after producing his trademark long, powerful sprint after a near perfect lead out from his new teammates.
Cavendish managed to come from behind and fight through the other riders to take Kittel’s wheel but was unable to come past him before the line. Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) was fourth, Andrea Palini (Dubai SkyDive) was fifth and Andrea Guardini (Astana) sixth. Britain’s Chris Opie (One Pro Cycling) was also in the mix, finishing seventh, ahead of Elia Viviani (Team Sky).
Thanks to the time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds awarded at the finish, Kittel is the first overall leader of this year’s race and pulled on the race leader’s blue jersey.
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The German held up his fist in celebration and hugged his new Etixx-QuickStep teammates. Winning on his season debut and on his debut with his new team confirmed he is on form and has worked hard during the winter after quitting Giant-Alpecin.
"Especially after a hard season last year I’m incredibly happy that I could win, but even more that it worked so well with the new team," said Kittel after crossing the line. "The boys did a really, really good job and everyone saw we were the strongest in the lead out. We talked a lot about it before so the fact it has gone so well on the first stage is incredible.
”This year for me everything starts again at zero. I was really focused on training, working with the guys, making plans for 2016. I’m feeling really good already so I’m happy it’s working well already."
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