The Dubai Tour has wrapped up, with Mark Cavendish beating out a range of contenders including John Degenkolb to take the crown. With some time now passed to digest, what can we make of the event?
Here are five things we learned from the Dubai Tour.
Mark Cavendish is in very good form
The Manx Missile won the first and last stages of the race, taking the overall classification with it.
A big part of his win was his performance on the third stage, where he managed to get over some of the hillier portions with the lead group. This bodes well for Milan-San Remo, a race he has been struggling to make an impact in since his win in 2009.
Attendance at the middle eastern races still isn’t big enough
Although the last stage of the Dubai Tour in particular had more crowds in the last kilometre or so than is usually seen, it is fair to say the Dubai population were hardly enamoured by cycling’s biggest names racing through their streets.
For the most part the odd family was all that accompanied the race around the area, and seeing the sprint trains pass under the lanterne rouge with nobody around was odd.
Etixx-Quickstep’s leadout is already formidable
Despite teething problems in the last couple of years, Cavendish’s Quickstep leadout seems to be well and truly back on their feet. Tony Martin’s performance was incredibly throughout the week, and on the last stage Sabatini and Renshaw opened such a gap that a Cavendish win was almost inevitable.
Elia Viviani is maturing as a sprinter at Sky
It was a nice change to see Team Sky bring a full compliment of their sprint train to try and bring success for their new signing Elia Viviani. Under the guidance of Bernhard Eisel it was perhaps unsurprising that they achieved a victory, but it was still a big win – the Italian outsprinted Mark Cavendish after all.
When Viviani’s attention is on the road, expect big things from the 26-year-old.
The Dubai race is around for years to come
Despite the low attendance, and the parcours being mostly a sprinter’s affair, the race was a large success, with some of the biggest names coming to battle it out.
It definitely helped that Marcel Kittel wasn’t around to take three out of four stages this year, and the race still provided exciting racing even though three stages expected a sprint.
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