Mark Cavendish showed his vast experience and class as he sprinted to a stunning victory in the stage 2 of the Tour of Oman, here on Friday.
The QuickStep-AlphaVinyl sprinter coasted home in a blink ahead of Kaden Groves (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Amaury Capiot (Arkea-Samsic).
Fernando Gaviria, who was the stage 1 winner, struggled to replicate the same performance and finished fourth thereby conceding the overall lead to Cavendish.
Cavendish leads Groves and Gaviria by nine seconds but now the Tour would only get tougher and steeper as the competition heads to the hills with the stage 3 finishing on the three-kilometre climb to Qurayyat.
It was Cavendish's 157th professional victory and he is only one victory behind André Greipel on the list of all time race winners, with Sean Kelly (159), Mario Cipollini (161), Rik Van Looy and Roger De Vlaeminck (162) all arguably within reach.
The 167.5km second stage was challenging for all riders with the sea breeze the biggest obstacle of the day.
Antonio Angulo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Stephen Clancy (Novo Nordisk) formed the early break for the sprinter teams to chase, after local rider Mohammed Al-Wahibi failed to get across to them.
However, QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl and Bike Exchange-Jayco kept them within reach by trailing them throughout.
Gabriel Muller (Burgos-BH) tried a solo attack and opened a 40-second gap but he was also brought to heel. The sprinters’ team then took control, with QuickStep-AlphaVinyl giving Cavendish the lead out he needed in the final kilometres so he could dominate the sprint and open his 2022 account.
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