UAE Tour: Tim Merlier wins photo-finish stage 1 as Evenepoel and Bilbao profit greatly from crosswind action

The opening day of the UAE Tour saw plenty echelons on the road, and Tim Merlier won the reduced group sprint to take the first leader's jersey.

The strong winds immediately caused chaos early in the day, as splits occured right from the first kilometers. This has seen big damage in the peloton, with several groups up the road immediately since the start. It was a very fast day, except for the headwind sections which in the second half of the day saw the first two groups merge.  

The likes of Remco Evenepoel and Pello Bilbao benefited greatly from it, as did Luke Plapp who were the main figures who resisted out of the climbers. The likes of Jakob Fugslang and Jay Vine were completely shed off from the front groups and have suffered losses of minutes. With the intentions of Quick-Step who had several riders including Tim Merlier and Bahrain the gaps were solidified.

The likes of Mark Cavendish, Caleb Ewan, Phil Bauhaus and Olav Kooij also survived the chaos of the crosswinds, in which the front group saw splits towards the end once again.

Bert van Lerberghe did the leadout for Tim Merlier who launched his sprint first, but Caleb Ewan has managed to storm past the Belgian champion in the final meters to take a very important win. Initially it appeared so as the Australian celebrated, but it became apparent that it would be very difficult to measure who won, as not even the most detailed image could make a distinction.

After several minutes of discussion and analysis Merlier was determined to be the winner, with Ewan finishing second and Mark Cavendish taking third place.