Italian sprinter Elia Viviani takes over race after Stage 2 Sprint win
Viviani's Sprint Train delivered him to the front the peloton, out sprinting Van Poppel (Lotto NL Jumbo) and Ackerman (Bora-hansgrohe) on the line
Stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour was flat as a pancake, starting and finishing in Yas Island a bunch sprint was expected.
A five man breakaway got away and built up a lead of over 3m 30 seconds before the bunch started to reel them back in after 80 kms of racing.
The wind came into play and there were splits in the peloton that saw some anxious racing for the Sprinters to stay in contention.
A lot missed out in the split and worked hard to bridge back up. With 20 kms to go the split had dropped to 30 seconds and eventually the peloton came all back together with 18 k ms to go.
Movistar and Katusha drove the bunch hard and then Quick-Step Floors and LottoNL-Jumbo took over, Ackermann making the first move with Viviani and Van Poppel powering their way past him.
With the win, Elia Viviani has taken over the race lead and looks likely to hang onto to it on tomorrow's 133k flat stage around Abdu Dhabi.
Stage 4 is the ITT and Stage 5 to the Jebel Hafeet mountain finish could be the deciding stage in the over all General Classification with GC favorite Alejandro Valverde in 7th place amongst all the sprinters.
VIDEO: 2018 Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 2 Highlights
2018 Abu Dhabi Tour Stage 2 Top 10
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 3:15:30
2 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
3 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky
5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
6 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb
7 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
8 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
9 Rudy Barbier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
2018 Abu Dhabi Tour GC after Stage 2
1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 8:03:44
2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
3 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:04
4 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF
5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:06
6 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:07
8 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo
9 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:00:08