DUBAI: Since its first edition, the Dubai Tour has really ascended beyond imagination. Back in 2014, it was merely a baby step taken in the direction of promoting cycling in the Middle-East, where barring the Tour of Qatar, cycling didn’t have much scope of prospering. Four years later, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have emerged as serious cycling hubs and with each passing year, only begin to gain enormously in terms of popularity.
The temperatures soaring, and the routes challenging – a total of over 800kms, yet all top riders have always embraced the idea of returning to the UAE. After the Tour Down Under and Spain’s Volta, the Dubai Tour is the new ‘grooming’ event for the riders, which as many of them admit, sets the tone for the remainder of the season.
The Dubai Tour has historically sprinters, and this year promises to be no different. The likes of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Dylan Groenewegen, Elia Vivianiand others will be involved in hotly-contested rivalry for sprint dominance. Winner of the last two editions, Kittel looks favourite with form and the confidence of a new team behind him, whereas it will be interesting to see what kind of shape Cavendish is in after enduring an injury-prone season in 2017.
Last year, the only challenging stage – that of the Hatta Dam – was cancelled due to bad weather. This time around though, with no rain or sandstorm in sight, the sprinters won’t have it as easy as last year. The mild mountain climb of Stage 4 will test them. However, with the remaining four stages being flat, it is likely that for the fifth year running, the Circle of Stars Trophy gets lifted by a sprinter.
“I came here like every year for my first race of the season. I’ve changed team but my motivation is the same. We’ll try our best to go for the victory, but we’ll take it day by day, as we’re not yet concentrated on scoring the hat-trick,” two-time winner Kittel said a day before the race commences. “Elia Viviani certainly has a very good team, with my old train, but I also have a strong team with a lot of German speaking riders. I’m curious to find out how good we are.”
The reason why Kittel mentioned Viviani is because until last year, the German was where Viviani is now, one to shepherd the leadout-train. But there aren’t many similarities between the two. Kittel is a battering ram of a sprinter, whereas Viviani a deft artist and master technician. But that hasn’t got into Viviani’s way of believing he can’t get the job done.
“I’ve had a really good winter with my new team and I’ve already got a stage win [at the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia]. I enjoy racing for Quick Step Floors. This team is very focus on sprinting. It makes a difference for me. Stage 1 has a really nice finish – I’ve won there two times – positioning before the final straight is crucial, depending on the crosswinds,” he said.
Also clouded by uncertainty is Cavendish, who now seems to be a familiar feature in all events of the Middle-East. But even he, by every stretch of his imagination, knows that his triumph in 2015 was a long time ago. Since then, he’s been marred with injuries and inconsistency, and has fallen behind his contemporaries. Will Cavendish still be fast as ever as he approaches his 33rd birthday after his injury-hit 2017 season? The British rider thinks so.
“I’ve enjoyed it every time I come here. Dubai is a great place; I even came here on holiday once. It’s nice to start the season here. The organization of the race is excellent with a good combination of sprints and I really like the finish to Hatta Dam. I have great memories of it, not from when I crossed the finish line but the emotion afterwards. You have to dig really deep to win that finale. Our team has had a superb start to the year in Argentina. The atmosphere was great also in Mallorca where we already won the first stage.”
Another individual for whom the Dubai Tour will be of utmost significance is Alexander Kristoff. The Norwegian sprinter will make his long awaited debut for UAE Team Emirates will be eager to hit the ground running with at least a stage win. Kristoff moved to his new team in the off-season having spent six largely successful years at Katusha, getting replaced by Kittel. Plus, there is always that pressure of being the leader of the home team.
“For sure, this race is important for my new team – it’s our home ground – but the Dubai Tour is no less important for the other sprinters sitting next to me. The level of sprinting here is very high. There’ll be a tough competition. I did some work with my new team-mates, but it’s difficult to train all together when some of us are racing in Australia and Argentina. I’m pretty fresh. I’ll try day by day to be a winner,” Kristoff told reporters.
The cyclists aside, there are five side-heroes in the Dubai Tour – the five four stages across which the event will be contested.