News
Road

Mark Cavendish continues busy February with Abu Dhabi Tour

By Cycling News

published 20 February 2018

Cummings makes season debut for Dimension Data in WorldTour race

Comments

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Image 1 of 5

Mark Cavendish takes his first win of 2018(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images Sport)

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data).(Image credit: TDW/GI Cycling)

Mark Cavendish collects his prize(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)

Mark Cavendish and Bernhard Eisel celebrate after stage 3(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Mark Cavendish continues his Middle Eastern block of racing this week, riding the five-day Abu Dhabi Tour after completing the Dubai Tour and the Tour of Oman.

Kristoff plans a February 'Grand Tour' for UAE Team Emirates debut

Cavendish starts 2018 with Dubai, Oman and Abu Dhabi racing block

2018 Abu Dhabi Tour preview

Abu Dhabi Tour 2018 start list

Viviani leads Quick-Step Floors at Abu Dhabi Tour

Cavendish has already clocked up 11 days of racing in the last 14 days and will lead Dimension Data in the opening three stages of the Abu Dhabi Tour, which are likely to end in bunch sprints.

After that, Steve Cummings and Lachlan Morton will take over for the 12.6km time trial on stage 4 and the mountain finish on Jebel Hafeet on the final day. Also in the Dimension Data squad for the Abu Dhabi Tour are Mark Renshaw, Jaco Vinter, Mekseb Debesay and Scott Davies.

The Abu Dhabi Tour is part of the UCI WorldTour and so precious ranking points will be up for grabs. 17 of the 18 WorldTour teams have opted to ride, with Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Rohan Dennis (BMC), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) all in action.

Cavendish won stage 3 at the Dubai Tour and was second on the opening stage at last week's Tour of Oman. He is clearly on form but faces competition in the sprints from Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors), Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott), and Dan McLay (EF Education First-Drapac).

"The Abu Dhabi Tour will be a tough challenge, as all WorldTour races are," Dimension Data directeur sportif Roger Hammond explained.

"The peloton has a couple of race days in their legs now so everyone is a bit faster, all slightly sharper too, so executing our plans will be key to a good result. We have a strong squad here for Abu Dhabi which will look to make the most of the opportunities presented to us this week."