Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Elia Viviani (Team Sky) have clashed on the road and track during the 2016 and their rivalry will continue to the very end of the season at this week's Abu Dhabi Tour.
The Abu Dhabi Tour route is expected to produce three high-speed finishes on Thursday, Friday and then Sunday's final stage on the Yas Marina motor racing circuit. Cavendish and Viviani will sprint shoulder to shoulder but will also have to watch out for Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), Michael Matthews (Orica-Bike Exchange), Andrea Guardini (Astana), Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida), Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Segafredo) and Jakub Mareczko (Wilier-Southeast).
Cavendish and Viviani fought in the sprints at the Dubai Tour in February, at the track world championships in March and then again in the omnium at the Rio Olympics. Cavendish sparked a crash that brought down the Italian but he got up to win the gold medal by dominating the final points race, forcing Cavendish to accept a silver medal.
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Cavendish enjoyed huge success at the Tour de France by winning four sprint stages and won silver in the World Championships behind Peter Sagan. Viviani won two stages at the Abu Dhabi Tour in 2015. This year both have strong lead out trains with them in Abu Dhabi for the last big-name sprint battle of the season.
"To be back here racing is pretty special, I watched with envy as others raced last year. I'm looking forward to racing and contesting the three sprint stages," Cavendish said, remembering how he watched from the roadside in 2015 after damaging his shoulder at the Tour of Britain.
"We've got Bernie (Eisel), Mark Renshaw and and Youcef Reguigui for the lead, out, we've got a good set of guys here. In Jay Thompson and Mekseb Debesey, we've got two guys to ride on the front too. We'll have to be careful with our strategy because there are six-rider teams but it's the same for everyone."
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