Andrea Guardini (Astana) used his pure sprinter’s speed to win the opening stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour and so take the first red race leader’s jersey of the new four-day race in the Middle East.
The presence of world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) and a host of other big-name riders meant that Guardini was overlooked in the pre-race build-up. However, he left all his rivals several bike lengths behind when he kicked in the final 150 metres.
“In the last 250 I was on Bennati’s [wheel] and saw that Sagan pulled him for a long time on the front. At 150 I heard my name called out by the race announcer and jumped. I had the legs to make a really powerful sprint,” he explained in his post-race press conference.
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Guardini admitted that he suffered in the heat but used his suffering as motivation.
“I think this is the hottest day of my career and was for most other riders too,” he said. “When I saw the other riders I thought that I while maybe I was suffering, perhaps the other riders were suffering more than me.”
Boonen managed to take second on the line, edging past Daniele Bennati, who had been given the role of sprinter and a huge lead out by Peter Sagan.
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