After a 15-minute wait: Merlier wins at the start of the UAE Tour

Click through: Stage 1 of the UAE Tour 2023 in pictures

After a long evaluation of the finish photo, Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) won the first stage of the UAE Tour. A good 15 minutes after the end of the race, the jury declared the Belgian road cycling champion the winner ahead of the Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny).

UAE Tour: Cavendish third on stage 1

However, it was impossible to tell with the naked eye who was in front after 151 kilometres in Al Mirfa. Third place went to superstar Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team), who took his first podium for his new team. Nikias Arndt took a respectable fifth place directly ahead of Phil Bauhaus (both Bahrain-Victorious).

"It was very close at the end. We waited 15 minutes to find out the winner. Now I'm happy that I won," said Merlier. A small group around world champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) had decided the victory among themselves and probably also brought about a preliminary decision for the overall victory of the seven-day tour through the United Arab Emirates. Evenepoel had already opened up a lead of almost a minute on the other favourites.

The next large chasing group reached the finish 51 seconds behind. It included many of the favourites for the overall victory of the tour. Above all UAE Team Emirateswhich, with riders like Adam Yates and Jay Vine, has great ambitions in the domestic tour, will now have to come up with something to make up for this time deficit.

UAE Tour 2023: Stage 1 result

1st Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) 3:17:35

2nd Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) +0:00

3rd Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00

4th Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) +0:00

5th Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00

6th Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00

7th Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:00

8th Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00

9th Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00

10th Cees Bol (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:00

The current standings in the overall standings

1st Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) 3:17:25

2nd Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) +0:04

3rd Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:05

4th Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:06

5th Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:07

6th Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:08

7th Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:08

8th Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) +0:10

9th Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:10

10th Cees Bol (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:10

>> UAE Tour 2023: All stages at a glance

The UAE Tour continues on Tuesday with stage 2: a team time trial over 17.3 kilometres.

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