Mark Cavendish and his Dimension Data teammates sat in the shade of a tree beyond the finish line of stage two of the Dubai Tour, carrying out an informal de-brief on the hectic sprint finish as they got changed and prepared for the drive back to the hotel in central Dubai.
Cavendish finished eighth as Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) took his second consecutive victory. The German came around on the left after moving up late in the sprint and had the speed to punch his way to victory, beating Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo), with Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina) in third.
Cavendish was calm despite defeat and explained he, like Kittel, had also been caught out by the late surge by Trek-Segafredo. While Kittel followed lead out man Fabio Sabatini on the left, Cavendish tried to go on the right. But he couldn’t find a way through the chaos and so eventually eased up before the line.
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“We were with Quick-Step and we both got caught out. Kittel was near me and we were panicking with 500 metres to go,” Cavendish explained to Cyclingnews, remembering every detail of the sprint as if he had experienced it slow motion.
“Then it suddenly opened up and we both got through. He cut left with his team, he really swerved left. By the time I moved across to him Ferrari got on his wheel and just went ‘whack!’ into me. He didn’t do anything wrong, he did his sprint, but I didn’t want to fight and crash in a sprint in February.”
“After that I went on the right side but there was no way through. At first we were coming up super fast and I could see Kittel on the left. In my opinion I was going faster than him. Then the Dutch champion guy Groenewegen went along the barriers in front of me. I was forced on the brakes with 100 metres to go and that was it.”
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