Philipsen takes opening stage of UAE Tour in thrilling sprint finish

Jasper Philipsen made a perfect start in the year’s WorldTour opener, edging out Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Bennett and Elia Viviani of Ineos Grenadiers in a photo finish to take the opening stage of the UAE Tour at Madinat Zayed on Sunday.

With that result, the Alpecin-Fenix rider showed the race’s stacked field of sprinters that he would be the man to beat this season.

Having claimed the opening stage, the will wear the red jersey on Monday’s second sprint stage over the 176-kilometre distance from Hudayriyat Island to Abu Dhabi Breakwater.

“It was a pretty fast finish,” said Philipsen after his win. “The last straight was more than 50 kilometres, so we could see the finish from very far out!

“The team did a really good job at staying calm. We had time and space to move, and then we made our way to the front.”

The closing dash to the finish line saw Philipsen manage to nudge Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) off the wheel of UAE Team Emirates' Pascal Ackermann, and he was able to follow and then go past the German once he kicked off the sprint.

Asked how confident he was that he would win, the Philipsen replied: “Not confident at all. It was the first race of the season, so you don't know how your shape is and how it compares with the other teams.

1. Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 4:42:34

2. Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe

3. Elia Viviani (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers

4. Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) BikeExchange-Jayco

5. Emils Liepins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo

6. Arnaud Demare (Fra) Groupama-FDJ

7. Max Kanter (Ger) Movistar Team

8. Olav Kooij (Ned) Jumbo-Visma

9. Tom Devriendt (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

10. Pascal Ackermann (Ger) UAE Team Emirate

“I'm really looking forward to moving on and trying to repeat the same