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Mark Cavendish Sprints to Abu Dhabi Stage 2 Success

Mark Cavendish showed his class by sprinting to the stage win and taking the overall race leader's jersey on stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour

Elia Viviani (Team Sky) finished in second place and Andrea Gaurdini (Astana) was third.

A short stage that greeted the Abu Dhabi Tour Pro Peloton on stage 2 with only 115km to be raced around the streets of Abu Dhabi.

An early breakaway featured six riders.

Team Dimension Data together with Giant-Alpecin and Trek-Segafredo kept the gap under the three-minutes.

Other Sprint team seemed to be disinterested in chasing.

It was a close as the breakaway was only reeled in with 1km to go, thanks to the work done by Team Dimension Data, Giant-Alpecin and Trek-Segafredo.

Team Sky and CCC Sprandi used fresher legs to lead out the sprint but Mark Renshaw did a fantastic job to bring Cavendish into position with 300m to go.

The Manxman slipped onto the wheel of Viviani just before the final right hand bend. Viviani hit out with the line in sight but Cavendish easily came off his wheel with more speed and surged ahead to take the stage.

Win the stage win Cavendish moved into the overall race lead as well as into the lead in the points jersey competition, with his third place in Thursday's first stage.

Cavendish commented "I am really happy with today, to get the win after going so close yesterday. It was touch and go as to whether the break would be caught but the team rode hard up front,"

"Mark Renshaw gave me a good lead-out. It was only going to be difficult because we didn't have the full team at the end. Mark got me onto Sky before the last corner which was perfect because I was able to come around Elia Viviani to get the win," he added.

You can follow the race on our 2016 Abu Dhabi Tour LIVE STREAMING page.

2016 Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 2 Results Top 20

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 2:32:21 
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky   
3 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team   
4 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Wilier Triestina-Southeast   
5 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team   
6 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo   
7 Christopher Latham (GBr) Team WIGGINS   
8 Michal Kolár (Svk) Tinkoff Team   
9 Steele Von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling   
10 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-BikeExchange   
11 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal   
12 Alan Banaszek (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice   
13 Erik Baska (Svk) Tinkoff Team   
14 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo   
15 Siarhei Papok (Blr) Minsk Cycling Club   
16 Yousif Alhammadi (UAE) Nasr Dubai   
17 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-BikeExchange   
18 Chun Kai Feng (Tpe) Lampre - Merida   
19 Alexander Kolobnev (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo   
20 Andrew Fenn (GBr) Team Sky  

VIDEO: 2016 Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 2 Highlights

Mark Cavendish Sprints to Abu Dhabi Stage 2 Success