Ewan celebrates too early as Kittel nabs Sprint

Marcel Kittel of Quick-Step Floors has won the second stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour from a seemingly impossible position to beat Caleb Ewan and Mark Cavendish in the final sprint. Cavendish retains overall lead.

The breakaway of the day consisted of six riders. Nicola Boem (Bardiani), Marco Canola (Nippo), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Fabio Calabria (Novo Nordisk), Kristijan Durasek (UAE) and Kirill Sveshnikov (Gazprom), who created an advantage but were never given much space by the peloton.

Marcel Kittel, who opted to ride without disc brakes following the incident with Sky's Owain Doull in the opening stage, suffered a front wheel puncture at about 30 kilometers from the finish and was brought back to the peloton by his Quick-Step teammates.

Canola and De Marchi were the last remaining members of the breakaway who remained ahead of the peloton but the two Italians were finally caught with jtwo kilometers to go, despite their efforts to make it all the way to the finish.

In the sprint, Caleb Ewan's Orica-Scott was perfectly positioned, the Australian seemed headed for victory but Kittel fought to the very last moment to take the win of Ewan and Cavendish.

Ewan was forced to settle for second with Mark Cavendish taking third place for Dimension Data, who remains in the overall lead after two of four stages.

In fact Ewan seemed to celebrate the sprint win such was Kittels final surge to the line, Ewan did even see Kittel coming.

2017 Tour of Oman Stage 2 Top 10

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 3:28:11
2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-Scott
3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data
4 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
5 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb
6 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
7 Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
8 Eduard Michael Grosu (Rou) Nippo - Vini Fantini
9 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
10 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo

2017 Tour of Oman Overall after Stage 2

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 8:05:03
2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:04
3 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:00:08
4 Marco Canola (Ita) Nippo - Vini Fantini
5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-Scott
6 Manuele Mori (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
7 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:10
8 Fabio Calabria (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk 0:00:11
9 Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:12
10 Kazushige Kuboki (Jpn) Nippo - Vini Fantini