UAE Tour: Mark Cavendish wins stage two's bunch sprint

It was revenge after an unsuccessful sprint yesterday as Mark Cavendish soared to his second win of the season at the UAE Tour. The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team rider had a headwind finale suited to his characteristics and just barely managed to beat Jasper Philipsen in the dash to the line.

The day was not without a particularly unusual start, as only one team placed riders in the breakaway and that was Gazprom - Rusvelo, who took advantage of the lack of willpower in the peloton to place three riders at the head of the race. They were Dmitry Strakhov and Pavel Kotchekov who repeated yesterday's adventure, and Czech national champion Michael Kukrle. The trio was never a threat to the peloton, which was for a long period of time very nervous as echelons were a possibility and everyone looked to be in front.

The breakaway was eventually caught with 36 kilometers to go, which preceded a very calm period in the peloton, which was well taken by the riders as Jasper Philipsen even temporarily dismounted purposefully, showing how there was no tension in the peloton.

As the finish line drew nearer though the scenario changed, as another violent approach to the line was expected, albeit with a headwind today unlike yesterday's tailwind finishing straight.

Many teams took the head of the race like yesterday in a complicated battle for positioning, Israel - Premier Tech and BORA - hansgrohe did a great job in positioning their sprinters into the final meters, but Sam Bennett found himself swarmed as everyone followed the wheel of Mark Cavendish in the final two hundred meters but no-one managed to go over the Manxman, with Pascal Ackermann finishing third.