Ace sprinter Mark Cavendish’s Etixx-Quickstep team were fighting for both the stage win and the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Sunday. They ended empty-handed.
The double failure had the Belgian team clearly frustrated, with Cavendish first blaming his lead-out man Mark Renshaw then calling his critics “imbeciles” who don’t understand cycling.
After Renshaw launched the final sprint with about 300 metres to go, Cavendish was easily beaten at the Stage 2 finish by Andre Greipel, Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara in the Zeeland Delta.
“I think Mark went too early and kind of left me hanging. We died,” Cavendish said. “The day Cancellara beats me in a sprint I’ve gone too long. I’ve gassed it. It’s disappointing.”
Cavendish, who has 25 Tour stage wins to his name, seemed to stop his effort after realising he would not be able to clinch the win. That attitude that was not to the liking of Etixx-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefevere.
“I am not happy at all. Probably this was our last chance to take the yellow jersey,” Lefevere said.
Had Cavendish finished third, he would have denied Cancellara a bonus of four seconds that helped the Swiss veteran grab the yellow jersey at the expenses of Tony Martin, who also rides for Etixx-QuickStep.
“Cavendish stopped sprinting and this costs Tony the jersey,” Lefevere said.
Cavendish then took to Twitter to express his feelings about people criticising him on social media.
“If I could hang on for 3rd, I could hang on for the win,” he wrote. “Some imbeciles think cycling is a computer game.”
Cancellara’s bonus
Since 2008 there had been no time bonus awarded at the Tour de France stage finishes. They are back this year, and Cancellara made the most of them on Sunday to erase the disappointment of his opening time trial.
After failing in his bid to win the Tour’s opening stage for a record sixth time on the streets of Utrecht, Cancellara sprinted to a third-place finish at the end of Sunday’s rain-soaked second stage of the Tour. That was enough to earn him a four-second bonus and the yellow jersey.
“To finish third here against the three best sprinters in the world is a big achievement,” said Cancellara, who ended the chaotic stage on the shores of the North Sea behind Greipel and Sagan. “I was really sorry yesterday, today I’m happy. Coming here and win another yellow jersey, for a 29th day, it’s great,” said Cancellara, who wore the coveted tunic for the first time 11 years ago.
Competing in his final Tour de France, the 34-year-old time trial and one-day classics specialist was involved in a bad crash in March, suffering two minor fractures to his lower back at the E3 Harelbeke classic. The crash forced him to miss the cobbled classics he loves so much, returning to competition at the end of May.
“It was not a nice time,” Cancellara said. “Not being at the classics was not a good thing for my motivation. And it’s only last weekend that I started to feel good again.”
Cancellara added that an encouraging text message from sports director Josu Larrazabal he received on Saturday night lifted his morale.
“I was on a massage table and I probably read it 10 times,” he said. “It was one of the best messages I received in months. This was maybe the key I needed to open the door. It opened today, and I’m back in yellow.
Security concerns
This year more than ever, security is a top priority for Tour de France organisers.
In the wake of the terror attacks that have shaken France this year, the level of alertness has been raised and the Tour de France, which draws millions of spectators over three weeks, is being given extra security by French authorities.
“We are liaising with them and additional measures have been taken,” said Tour director Christian Prudhomme. “I can’t obviously reveal the whole scheme.”
At the start of Sunday’s second stage in Utrecht, Netherlands, fans invited to the Village Depart – the place where VIPs, sponsors and journalists gather before the start – had their bags checked by security officials. Barriers were also separating the spectators from the riders and their team buses.
“I have seen a lot of security at an appropriate level, I think it’s difficult to envisage how that could be any more,” UCI president Brian Cookson told The Associated Press. “The Dutch authorities here have done a very good job in maintaining security. Everyone has a responsibility for safety and security. That applies to the teams, the riders, as much to the race organisations. And it applies to the spectators as well.”
Tracks
After some riders ignored lowered barriers at a railroad crossing during Paris-Roubaix earlier this year, Tour de France organisers are taking action.
In accordance with cycling’s governing body rules, riders who will ignore the flashing lights and sound warnings at railroad crossings will be thrown out of the Tour.
Police forces and members of the race organisation will be posted at every crossing on the race course to ensure the rules are enforced.
France’s national rail company SNCF filed a lawsuit after the Paris-Roubaix incident. Tour organisers said they are cooperating with the SNCF during the Tour.
During Paris-Roubaix, a railway crossing gate went down, nearly hitting one rider and forcing other cyclists to wait for a high-speed train to pass just after some riders crossed the tracks.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ponti
Sharlene Teo, Pan Macmillan
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
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Did you know?
Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.
New process leads to panic among jobseekers
As a UAE-based travel agent who processes tourist visas from the Philippines, Jennifer Pacia Gado is fielding a lot of calls from concerned travellers just now. And they are all asking the same question.
“My clients are mostly Filipinos, and they [all want to know] about good conduct certificates,” says the 34-year-old Filipina, who has lived in the UAE for five years.
Ms Gado contacted the Philippines Embassy to get more information on the certificate so she can share it with her clients. She says many are worried about the process and associated costs – which could be as high as Dh500 to obtain and attest a good conduct certificate from the Philippines for jobseekers already living in the UAE.
“They are worried about this because when they arrive here without the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] clearance, it is a hassle because it takes time,” she says.
“They need to go first to the embassy to apply for the application of the NBI clearance. After that they have go to the police station [in the UAE] for the fingerprints. And then they will apply for the special power of attorney so that someone can finish the process in the Philippines. So it is a long process and more expensive if you are doing it from here.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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