AL AIN // In his own words, Wouter Poels does not win often. So a chance to take the showpiece stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour, and to put himself squarely in line to win the overall Tour, was a big moment.
It was not to be, however, as Poels crashed metres from the finish line, having done the hard work in climbing up Jebel Hafeet and powering past an elite bunch of climbing specialists while doing so.
The crash allowed Esteban Chaves and Fabio Aru to go past him and a golden opportunity had slipped by even though he limped over in third place.
“I caught him (Chaves) on the last little climb, and then we went to downhill and I knew he was really tired,” Poels said. “Then I started the sprint really early uphill. I knew the corner was a really sharp one, and then I crashed which was really bad luck.”
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The cause of the skid was still unclear after the stage finish, but Poels suspected he might just have been going too fast into what was a 180-degree bend.
“The guys (Team Sky) thought they saw maybe my pedal hit the ground, but I’m not sure. I thought my front wheel was slipping away, so maybe I was a little bit too fast.”
There was talk of the team’s long-standing concerns about the wheels, but Chaves offered another factor.
“It’s one corner, 180 degrees, close to the line. So you need to take a risk, no? It’s a sprint finish. I think the sand on the road was the cause for his crash. I say again, it’s like this, the sport.”
Chaves refused to raise his arms in triumph as he crossed the finish line and though it was a sporting gesture, Poels knows it was just that: a gesture.
“That’s nice, sure. But it’s better to win. Maybe he can break tomorrow that I can take it, but it’s nice of him to say that. I don’t really win a lot of races, and when you’re so close on such a stage, you normally (get the General Classification) GC win. So that’s quite hard.
“It’s also cycling and so it’s bad luck. Hopefully next time a little bit more luck.”
Meanwhile, Etixx-Quick Step sprinter Tom Boonen will stay under observation until Thursday following a multi-rider crash during the second stage of the Tour. The Belgian was taken to hospital on Friday after fracturing his skull as well as losing consciousness for a few seconds.
“The rider is fine, he could sleep,” Giovanni Tredici, race doctor professor, said in a statement issued last night.
“He suffers of mild headache due to the head trauma and fracture of the temporal bone he sustained. His conditions are stable.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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