From Australia and Argentina in January to Africa and Asia in February, the worldwide highway season has been globe-trotting for fairly a while now, previous to settling down into the extra predictably Euro-centric schedule for a lot of the remainder of the season.
However earlier than that shift in the direction of western Europe, the UAE Tour brings down the curtain on the primary a part of the season, with World Champion Remco Evenepoel the top-name racer for the general classification for the Center East’s solely WorldTour occasion.
As we noticed within the inaugural girls’s race earlier this month, the general battle is probably going – barring crashes or crosswinds – to be determined within the two summit finishes and the workforce time trial, again after a four-year hiatus, there’s a lot extra to take pleasure in within the seven-day stage race.
4 ultra-flat levels on largely broad, well-surfaced highways make this, as Astana sprinter Mark Cavendish has noticed, “a little bit of a World Championships for sprinters.”
And aside from Cavendish himself, the presence of a plethora of prime fastmen together with Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-Fast Step) all however ensures some epic bunch dash battles.
Forward of the race, Cyclingnews seems to be at among the narratives prone to function within the Center East’s solely WorldTour occasion.
Remco Evenepoel seems to be for first win in rainbow jersey
Ever since Remco Evenepoel turned professional he is been within the media highlight and similar to on the Vuelta a España final 12 months, a small military of Belgian biking journalists is predicted to descend on the UAE Tour to sate their compatriots’ voracious urge for food for Evenepoel tales. Their dream dwelling situation, in fact, could be if the UAE noticed Evenepoel declare his first win within the rainbow bands.
How seemingly that’s to occur, although, is difficult to foretell. Evenepoel’s final go to to the UAE Tour in 2019 as a neo-pro noticed him shine on the Jebel Hafeet then give up after a nasty crash, and his one race thus far, on the Vuelta a San Juan, was a combined bag of workforce success and a pricey miscalculation of his personal efforts on the Alto Colorado.
However then once more, at San Juan his position was as a lot about serving to in-house sprinter Tim Merlier to stage wins because it was about on the lookout for victory in his personal proper. In UAE, his GC targets are seemingly going to take higher precedence.
A person time trial, slightly than the TTT now programmed for stage 2, would have been ultimate for Evenepoel to assert that first rainbow jersey victory. However in any case, the 2 lengthy, regular, easy, climbs to Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet are perfect for Evenepoel’s climbing skills, given he is not such an enormous fan of ultra-steep ascents, and both might effectively be the place he raises his arms for the primary time this 12 months.
If not, then the following alternative might be within the Volta a Catalunya, in a month’s time, the place he might be taking up Giro d’Italia contender Primož Roglič. If Evenepoel can have a UAE title beneath his arm to match Roglic’s title from the 2019 race then no one in Belgium, least of all of the biking media, might be complaining.
Who will win the workforce time trial?
Outdoors the Vuelta a España and Tirreno-Adriatico, workforce time trials have turn out to be more and more unusual on the WorldTour schedule. And for that cause alone, the relative rarity worth of the UAE TTT, again on the race program for the primary time since 2019’s opening version, would make it value watching.
It is also prone to produce quite a lot of upsets and knock-on results for GC, too. Held on a really flat, very quick course with solely a only a few broad bends, the TT specialists might be of their aspect on the Khalifa Port course, the UAE’s essential deepwater facility for its marine commerce.
However earlier than taking the plunge on the 17.2km course, it is value remembering as TTT workforce is barely sturdy because the weakest rider, and at such a excessive pace, course there might be no hiding locations for these GC specialists who’re unfortunate or susceptible towards the clock.
So this 12 months’s TTT on stage 2 will seemingly set up a hierarchy between the GC racers that would show important to completely different squads’ subsequent methods for the mountains.
To take 2019 for instance, Jumbo-Visma clinched the win on a barely shorter, 16km course the place the quickest and slowest WorldTour groups had been separated by a minute, and Primož Roglič clinched the lead – which he then efficiently defended all the best way to the ultimate stage. Will an analogous situation play out in 2023?
No Pogacar however Adam Yates debuts for UAE
The absence of Tadej Pogačar for the primary time since 2019 within the UAE Tour leaves a big vacuum. But when anyone else has proved he has the measure of the race’s GC battle over time that must be Adam Yates, making his debut for Pogačar’s squad of their dwelling race.
The winner of the curtailed model in 2020, Yates has completed second total to Pogačar within the final two editions in addition to taking a notable lone victory at Jebel Hafeet, the race’s most decisive climb forward of the Slovenian three years in the past.
Placing Yates on the head of the UAE squad is a logical alternative, then, and the Briton can depend on what’s, on paper, one of many strongest squads for this 12 months’s race, with Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty additionally severe choices for the GC ought to he falter.
However it additionally means the UAE Tour will act as a primary check of how effectively he is tailored to his new workforce, and with Evenepoel as simply considered one of many potential rivals – to call however two, hold your eyes open for Bahrain’s Pello Bilbao and Jumbo-Visma’s Sepp Kuss – It will not be a easy one.
Mark Cavendish honing his Astana lead-out practice
After a low-key debut with Astana Qazaqstan within the Tour of Oman given the shortage of bunch sprints, Mark Cavendish will go from famine to feast on the UAE Tour with as much as 4 alternatives for the fastmen – and 4 alternatives, subsequently, to check the fledgling Astana lead-out.
Cavendish has obtained some vital type with regards to success within the UAE. He has seven wins there to date in his profession, unfold throughout the Tour of Dubai (which he additionally gained outright in 2015), the Tour of Abu Dhabi and final 12 months, his first within the UAE Tour in its present format.
So, fairly aside from his unquestionable sprinting skills, he has greater than sufficient expertise and native data to assist him be up there within the motion as effectively.
Nonetheless, his workforce remains to be on a pointy studying curve with regards to bunch dash battles and right here he’ll be working together with his primary lead-out man, Cees Bol, for the primary time this season.
The dash line-up, as ever within the UAE, is formidable, and fairly presumably the deepest previous to the Spring Classics and/or the Grand Excursions. A prime outcome right here, so early within the season, for Cavendish’s new squad, would characterize a large increase to their morale, however in any case, it means UAE is the place they’re going to get an actual really feel of what the dimensions of the challenges is for the remainder of the season.
The rise and rise of Jay Vine
There appears to be no stopping Jay Vine in the intervening time. The inclusion of the Australian for UAE Emirates of their dwelling race, which his workforce’s head sports activities director Joxean Fernandez Matxin describes as second solely to the Tour de France in significance, is yet one more indication of how quickly the Australian is rising via the Emirati ranks.
Victory within the one WorldTour stage race thus far this 12 months on dwelling soil on the Tour Down Underneath, in addition to the Australian time trial title, was the dream begin to Vine’s debut season at UAE.
Right here becoming a member of forces with Brandon McNulty – recent from a really strong efficiency within the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana – and Adam Yates, the squad might be spoiled for alternative with regards to GC contenders for his or her dwelling race, and their rivals might effectively find yourself thanking their fortunate stars that Pogačar did not decide to participate too.
When it comes to different fast-rising skills to observe, Thomas Gloag was at all times going to be a part of the Jumbo-Visma line-up for UAE. However after his beautiful efficiency in Valenciana in his debut for the Dutch squad, claiming sixth and with some stand-out breakaways and assaults on the hillier levels in addition, it’s going to be intriguing to see how the Briton fares on the more durable UAE circuit. Watch this house.
