UAE Tour: Tim Merlier beats De Kleijn and Mareczko to win stage 1; massive crash marks final sprint

Stage 1 of the UAE Tour was expected to be a bunch sprint and the main fast men in the race were all present. Tim Merlier was the winner of the opening day, having avoided a mass crash that took place already within the final sprint.

With threats of echelons, the start of the stage was very fast and it took a while before there were any real breakaway attempts. After 25 kilometers of racing two Team Corratec - Vini Fantini riders - Mark Stewart and Marco Murgano - went up the road and marked the day's events.

A gap that reached four minutes but was never threatening. The sprinter teams just protected themselves, ahead of what was to be a furiously fast finale.

Pello Bilbao sneaked in a bonus second in the final intermediate sprint, where Murgano was caught and shortly after Stewart was also brought in by the peloton, with 20 kilometers to go.

The speeds were very strong as the riders entered the final 3 kilometers, trying to enter the final roundabout and rise to the line in pole position. The final sprint was complete chaos with no team taking to the front.

A tough crash took place with around 250 meters to go, almost at the same time that Fernando Gaviria and Juan Sebastián Molano launched their sprint. Too early of an effort however, Gaviria faded in the final meters and last year's opening stage winner Tim Merlier sprinted to victory once again.

Merlier outsprinted non-World Tour figures Arvid de Kleijn and Jakub Mareczko, both with a very strong result amidst such competition.