Dubai Tour: Cavendish has still got it, Groenewegen curses his team mechanics

Thursday’s win on Stage 3 of the Dubai Tour gives Mark Cavendish 13 consecutive seasons with a professional cycling win. The Brit from Dimension Data has 146 wins on his palmares in a career that started with Team Sparkasse in 2005.

?? #DubaiTour

Legends! ? Some good team work work finished off perfectly by @MarkCavendish!! ?? pic.twitter.com/Kx3R8P4ZK0

— NTT Pro Cycling (@NTTProCycling) February 8, 2018

It was just over 11-months ago that Cavendish scored his last win on the opening stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour. Cav had to recover from the Epstein-Barr virus early in 2017 and then got tangled up with Peter Sagan at the Tour de France–where the Manx Missile has taken 30 stages–to crash out of the race.

Despite coming 10th on Thursday, Dylan Groenewegen, the LottoNL-Jumbo sprinter who took the Dubai Tour’s opening stage, lost his race lead to Stage 2 victor Elia Viviani (Italy/Quick Step) after receiving a 20-second penalty for drafting a team car. Groenewegen had suffered a mechanical with 70-km remaining.

The Dutchman lashed out at his team mechanics, splitting expletives when talking to Cyclingnews after the finish: “I had problems with my bike, the mechanicals f**ked it up for me. I actually think it was a good decision by the judges but it f**ked it up for me. My second bike was f**ked too, that’s why I changed it. It was the bottom bracket. It was completely f**ked!” Groenewegen retains the green points jersey.

??#DubaiTour Here's the reason why Dylan Groenewegen has been given the twenty second penalty. pic.twitter.com/Lmcj6rch82

— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) February 8, 2018

This July both Cav and Groenewegen, the latter of whom earned a famous win last year on the Champs Élysées, will be part of the Tour de France’s strong sprint corps that also includes Peter Sagan, Caleb Ewan and Marcel Kittel.