After winning the
UAE Tour's second bunch sprint,
Mark Cavendish has gotten his 158th win as a professional rider. The
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team sprinter has now equalled the win tally of former rival André Greipel who has retired last season, and has the opportunity to go over that mark this week as the Middle Eastern race still presents two more stages that should end in a bunch sprint.
It was a chaotic finale once again at the UAE Tour, but with quite different results. Yesterday both Mark Cavendish and Pascal Ackermann lacked the speed to be in the shot for the top places in the final sprint, however the opposite was seen today as they finished first and third respectively, with race leader Jasper Philipsen inbetween. Cavendish entered the final sprint in the wheel of Sam Bennett and by launching early he managed to avoid being blocked like the Irish sprinter did, and kept the speed high enough to take his second win of the season.
Now, Cavendish has equalled André Greipel in the amount of wins gotten as a pro rider. Many times, the duo dealt blows between each other throughout the last decade, that was after they spent three years racing for the old HTC - Columbia structure where Cavendish began his quest for the Tour de France stage win record. Despite being 36 the British sprinter still has the legs to battle the fastest riders on the flat stages, and chances are this season his win tally will go over that of Greipel, and that may happen as soon as thursday as the peloton heads into Al Marjan Island for another expected bunch sprint.
