Mark Cavendish hailed his teammates after pipping Jasper Philipsen to take the second stage of the UAE Tour
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Updated 21/02/2022 at 13:43 GMT
Mark Cavendish praised his young team for how they delivered him to the line in his win at Abu Dhabi Breakwater. The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider said his men rode like "seasoned professionals" to belie their tender age. Winds and narrow corners had provided tricky challenges throughout the day, but Britain's Cavendish kept himself out of trouble to take the tape ahead of Jasper Philipsen.
Mark Cavendish of United Kingdom and Team Quick-Step - Alpha Vinyl celebrates winning during the 4th UAE Tour 2022 - Stage 2 a 176km stage from Hudayriyat Island to Abu Dhabi Breakwater.
Image credit: Getty Images
Mark Cavendish lavished praise on his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team after their contribution to his win on stage two of the UAE Tour.
Cavendish burst off his lead train a long way out from the line but had enough in the tank to hold off Jasper Philipsen, who had taken victory on Sunday's first stage.
Philipsen, however, did retain the leader's red jersey with a lead of four seconds over Dmitrii Strakhov.
"I'm just happy," Cavendish said.
"Happy that we could win here, but more so just how the team worked today.
"A third of the team here today are first-year professionals - this is the first or second race of their career.
"Seeing how they rode today they were like seasoned professionals. And that's after one day of talking about how we didn't get it right yesterday.
Nobody panicked, the job was to get me to the final as fresh as possible and they did that.
"Fortunately they did it so well I could go for 250-300 metres into a headwind. That's usually too far into a headwind but I was delivered so well that I knew I'd have the energy to take it to the line.
"I'm quite fortunate I felt Philipsen coming fast at me - we knew he's in good form after his sprint yesterday so I'm happy we could hold off and take the win."
The stage had seen the riders take on a flat, circuitous 176km parcours from Al Hudayriat Island to Abu Dhabi Breakwater, and it looked like another day for either a breakaway or a sprint finish.
For much of the early part of the stage the former looked likely with Michael Kukrle, Strakhov and Pavel Kochetkov forming a trio out front.
They had a gap of over three minutes at one stage but once they were reeled in with 36 kilometres to go, it was all eyes on the sprinters.
And Cavendish - as he has done so often - topped the class.
Tuesday's third stage is a nine-kilometre individual time trial in Ajman.
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