Mark Cavendish takes Abu Dhabi Tour lead with stage two win

Mark Cavendish claimed his ninth win of the season

Mark Cavendish took the overall lead of the Abu Dhabi Tour by sprinting to victory on stage two at Al Marina.

Cavendish (Dimension Data) started the sprint in the slipstream of Elia Viviani (Team Sky) but sped past the Italian in the last 100m to claim his ninth win of the season.

He collected 10 bonus seconds for the victory and now moves to the top of the general classification, four seconds ahead of second-placed Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and five seconds ahead of third-placed Jens Keukeleire (Orica-BikeExchange).

Abu Dhabi Tour guide

Stage-by-stage companion to the four-day race

Cavendish said: "I'm very happy to win here. I'm the ambassador of the race and I got close yesterday. I didn't get the opportunity to race here last year because of my shoulder injury, so I wanted to come here and be successful.

"It was a very chaotic sprint in which I lost my lead-out in the second-last corner. I thought, 'That's it', but we got back on. I had to brake at some stage. I was happy to be behind Sky in the last corner and pass them."

Cavendish (right) comes past Elia Viviani (centre) in the finishing straight

Cavendish is almost certain to lose the leader's red jersey on Saturday's 150km third stage, which ends with a 10.8km climb to a summit finish on Jebel Hafeet.

He will then have a chance to claim a second win of the race on Sunday's final stage, which is flat and takes place over 26 laps of the Yas Marina F1 circuit.

Stage two result

1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Dimension Data, 2:32:21
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky, same time
3 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana, st
4 Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Wilier-Southeast, st
5 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing, st
6 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, st
7 Chris Latham (GB) WIGGINS, st
8 Michael Kolar (Svk) Tinkoff, st
9 Steele von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling, st
10 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-BikeExchange, st

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General classification

1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Dimension Data, 5:48:06
2 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, +4sec
3 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-BikeExchange, +5
4 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky, +8
5 John SDegenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, same time
6 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana, +10
7 Dion Smith (NZ) ONE Pro Cycling, st
8 Chris Latham (GB) WIGGINS, +14
9 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing, +14
10 Michael Kolar (Svk) Tinkoff, st

There's something for everyone on Sky Sports Mix this weekend. Live F1 on Friday, Bournemouth v Spurs on Saturday, while on Sunday you can watch Feyenoord v Ajax, Red Bull 3x3 Basketball and NFL RedZone.