Cycling: Jasper Philipsen has won the first race of the 2022 WorldTour season. The Belgian defeated Sam Bennett and Elia Viviani in a mass sprint at the start of the UAE Tour.
Philipsen cheers for Alpecin – Fenix
The first race of the WorldTour season goes to a team that is not one of the WorldTour teams. Jasper Phillipsen (Alpecin – Fenix) was significantly faster in the bunch sprint on the right side of the lane than the competition in the middle. The Belgian also takes the overall lead ahead of the second-placed on the stage Sam Bennett (Bora – hansgrohe). The domestic UAE team Emirates in particular should be disappointed with the result. With Pascal Ackermann you actually wanted to decide the start for yourself. But the German – although in a top position – had a top speed that was clearly too low and almost stopped compared to the competition racing past. As tenth he can't even call himself the best German. Max Kanter (Movistar) finished a strong seventh.
Pogacar is favorite for the overall victory
Today's stage, starting and finishing in Madinat Zayed, took the professionals over 184 kilometers. Ultimately, it will not play a major role in the outcome of the tour. The decisive stages will be held on the fourth and seventh – and therefore last – day. Then the riders have to climb Jebel Jais or Jebel Hafeet. Overall, the UAE Tour is taking place for the fourth time. It ends on Saturday on that Jebel Hafeet. Tour winners go as favorites Tadej pogacar (UAE), Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), bilbao hair (Bahrain – Victorious) and Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo – Visma) into the race. Pogacar won last year, Yates two years ago. The first edition went to Primoz Roglic, who is not participating this year.
With about 800m it felt inevitable that there would be a crash at some point, and yet there wasn't - was a fantastic sprint from @JasperPhilipsen but super messy for a lot of riders #UAETour pic.twitter.com/ZMoizf2o2Z
— Pete. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿🚴♂️ (@PBXscribes) February 20, 2022
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