Astana's Guardini of Astana has taken victory on the opening stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour.
With a lot of big names riding including World Champion Peter Sagan but not Mark Cavendish who was a race ambassador, stage one was from Qasr Al Sarab to Madinat Zayed and over 174kms.
Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka), William Clarke (Drapac), Francisco Mancebo (Skydive Dubai), Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare), Michael Thompson (WIGGINS) formed the day's break and were four minutes ahead with 65kms gone on a day when temperatures were unkind at forty six degrees.
William Clarke took the first sprint with 104kms to go and bagged himself eight points in the black jersey competition.
Fiifteen kilometres later and the gap had dropped to 2.38 to the escapers which now numbered four with Thompson and Bazzana dropping back to the peloton.
Will Clarke, not looking good, was next to drop back to the peloton with 63kms to go, leaving three up front with a lead of 2.11 on a stage where the local 14.5km circuit was axed.
Only Voss and Mancebo were left up front but they were not setting a decent pace due to the heat which was a lot hotter than any expected.
Voss took the eight points and three bonus seconds ahead of Mancebo, who took the two seconds and five points on offer and then stayed clear on his own.
Mancebo increased his lead to 3.20 but with 35.1kms left, his lead was just over a minute and five kilometres later, he had enough and was back in the peloton.
The Tunisian Rafaa Schtioui took over on the front and was allowed to get two minutes ahead before BMC's Phillipe Gilbert put in an attack with just under ten kilometres left.
Five kilometres later and with Sir Bradley Wiggins team on the front of the peloton, the gap was down to 27 seconds.
The pace went up and just before the flam rouge, Schtioui was caught and the bunch sprint was on.
Etixx Quick Step has a rider on the front but Sagan attacked but on his left, Andrea Guardini of Astana came up and won in a time of 4.21.11 ahead of Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep), Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo), Andrea Palini (Skydive Dubai), Marco Canola (UnitedHealthcare), Edwin Alcibiao Avila Vanegas (Colombia), Elia Viviani (Team Sky), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Michael Schwarzmann (Bora-Argon18) and Luka Mezgec (Giant-Alpecin)
With the ten second bonus factored in, Guardini leads the race by four seconds.