The first flat stage of Dubai Tour was today’s stage. Before the stage, it looked to be a battle between the German Marcel Kittel and Brit Mark Cavendish. In the sprint, both Omega Pharma - Quickstep and Giant Shimano powered forward, but also Trek Factory Racing showed their power. Fabian Cancellara was a one-man lead-out train for Giacomo Nizzolo.

The three-man breakaway was reeled in with 10 kilometers to the finish line and it was time for positioning. Kittel took the top of the podium, Sagan was 2nd and race leader Phinney was third. Outside the podium finished Giacomo Nizzolo on the 5th place. He thinks that if he wasn’t that far behind with a couple of kilometres to go, his sprint could have been better.

“My sprint could be better for sure. But today the stage was really strange because it was so short and with the wind it made for a lot of unnecessary stress. We were too far back in the last kilometers, and Fabian [Cancellara] brought me to the front with the super legs he has, but with that effort I was a bit stuffed. We were just too far back and had to move up,” he says to the Trek website.

The leadout-man of Giacomo Nizzolo, Danilo Hondo says that the pace was too high, but the team will do much better tomorrow.

 “We were always together and were watching out for each other with the wind, but then we lost a little bit in the U-turn with three kilometers to go. Giacomo was still on the wheels of the Omega-Pharma team, so we waited. In the last moment, we were there, but the speed was so high we could not pass. In the end, Cancellara pulled all he could, but Kittel was the strongest. It was like this today, but we can do better tomorrow.”

Sport Director Luca Guercilena says that the wind on today’s stage was very strong, but it wasn’t a factor at the end of the stage.

“The wind was quite strong at the start” agreed director Luca Guercilena “But we are in the first part of the season, so there are not so many teams that can take such a long effort in the wind to make a difference. In the final, it only affected the last kilometers so it was not a factor to make any split. The breakaway went from kilometer zero, and it was not too hard in the peloton except for the last twenty kilometers when the fight began for the final sprint.

"We definitely can work more on our sprint as a team," Guercilena continued. "We have some new riders, and we must still gain confidence to work together. But Giacomo showed again that he is at the level of the top sprinters - we just need to work on it.”

Starting at 10.45 CET you can follow our live coverage on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview of stage 3 here.