Arab Cycling Ambitions

Knowing just how hugely popular road cycling is in Europe, the wealthy Arab states have for a long time spared no effort to host important races on their territory. To do so, they set their sights on the long stretch of free time in the WorldTour calendar between the Australian races of winter and the European races of spring, and laid the foundations for several multi-day tours.

 

 

This year, the Dubai Tour was held first, from January 31 to February 4 (United Arab Emirates), then the Tour of Oman on February 14–19 (Sultanate of Oman), and finally the Abu Dhabi Tour on February 23–26 (United Arab Emirates). It should be noted that while the first two are part of the Asia Tour, the Abu Dhabi Tour was held for the first time this year as a WorldTour race, which is very prestigious and will undoubtedly encourage the Arab states to invest even more in cycling. The cycling teams they fund in the world peloton, and a look at those teams’ rosters, show just how far-reaching the plans behind these aspirations are.

 

 

Given the race’s status (WorldTour), let’s focus on the Abu Dhabi Tour. The whole constellation of the world peloton gathered at the race, something the organizers spare no effort to achieve every year. Three of the four stages were for the sprinters, including the final stage on Abu Dhabi’s Formula 1 track — the Yas Marina circuit.

 

 

The decisive third, mountain stage for the general classification was crowned by a summit finish on Jebel Hafeet. The Jebel Hafeet mountain road was built in 1980 by a German company and is considered one of the best of its kind. It is 11.7 kilometers long, its serpentine of 21 bends climbs 1,219 meters, and the average gradient is 8%, which — despite the mega-star line-up of climbers — can be considered quite a hard climb for this part of the season. Such a climb demands serious form from a rider, and for the future Grand Tour favorites, who were present in Abu Dhabi in large numbers, this time of year is far too early for that.

Where to start? Three of the world peloton’s mega-stars, multiple Grand Tour winners, will be enough.

They were the Spaniard Alberto Contador (El Pistolero) of Trek-Segafredo,

 

 

the Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Lo Squalo) of Bahrain-Merida,

 

 

and the Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar.

 

 

Also in the race was the Italian Fabio Aru of Astana. Let us pay due respect to a Grand Tour winner: Fabio at least tried to do something, and it seems the tour was not just about collecting racing kilometers for him.

 

 

From the outset it was clear that in Abu Dhabi an equally bright constellation of sprinters would take center stage. And in the mountains and the general classification, the winner would have to be someone who had prepared specifically for this time of year.

As I said, only three sprints were planned, but there turned out to be four mega-favorites to win them: Britain’s Mark Cavendish, the Germans Marcel Kittel and André Greipel, and young Australian Caleb Ewan.

The most consistent of them turned out to be the legendary Briton. Mark won the first sprint and made the top three in the second and third, finishing third and second respectively, which also earned him first place in the points classification.

 

 

The second sprint went to Marcel Kittel in rather curious fashion. The inexperienced Australian thought he had already won and decided to start celebrating before crossing the line, something the experienced German did not forgive, snatching the victory from right under his nose.

 

 

The third sprint turned out to be special. Besides being contested on laps of a beautiful Formula 1 circuit, the weather was unusual too: it poured with rain in Abu Dhabi that day. This time Caleb gave the sprint away to no one and achieved his long-awaited victory surrounded by stars.

 

 

As for André Greipel (“The Gorilla”), although he made the top three in two sprints, for a sprinter of his level that can hardly be much of a consolation.

The day before, on the Jebel Hafeet climb mentioned above, a great battle was fought for the Abu Dhabi Tour’s mountain stage and the general classification. On the climb, Nairo and Alberto were noticeably needling each other, but it was clear that they were not yet ready for the front positions. Vincenzo didn’t join in these jabs either. Fabio did push, but he wasn’t the leading force on the climb that day.

 

 

Two leaders emerged on the climb: Portugal’s 2013 world champion Rui Alberto Faria da Costa of the UAE team, and Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha-Alpecin.

 

 

It seems the Portuguese had prepared specifically for this day, and he brought the Emirati team a beautiful home victory. Ilnur was second, while Tom Dumoulin worked very hard for third place — and was duly rewarded.

 

 

The Abu Dhabi Tour brilliantly crowned the Arab part of the season, which holds great prospects for the significant development of cycling in this part of the world in the future.

 

 

 

 

Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

 

Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.

 

 

 

 

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.