“That is the place we hope to get the ball rolling,” was how Mark Cavendish described his return to the UAE Tour the place the British rider will trip his first WorldTour race of 2023 together with his new squad Astana Qazaqstan.
Talking to reporters in a pre-race press convention, Cavendish identified that the depth of the sprinters’ area within the UAE Tour was “in all probability even increased than within the Tour de France”.
He additionally defined that one purpose why he had wished to participate this yr as a result of, “it offers an ideal alternative to hone and construct the workforce to trip within the finals of the bunch sprints.”
The week-long UAE Tour options 4 flat levels, beginning on Monday’s opening leg to Al Mirfa after which on levels 4,5 and 6, all of that are anticipated to finish in bunch sprints.
Cavendish was notably much less communicative when requested about his winter, bluntly answering “No” when requested if he had been nervous about maybe having to retire given his enforced late seek for a workforce following the collapse of the B&B Resorts challenge, to which he had been strongly linked.
The Briton was nearly equally uncommunicative when requested if it had been a troublesome few months over the winter, firing again to the journalist with the presumably rhetorical query.
“They have been all proper, thanks. How have been your final couple of months? Mine have been all proper,” he stated.
By way of racing, Cavendish has received on a number of events within the UAE prior to now, each within the Tour of Abu Dhabi and the Tour of Dubai in addition to taking a stage within the UAE Tour itself final spring. And the 37-year-old was, he insisted, completely satisfied to be again in a race sometimes called an unofficial ‘sprinters World Championships’.
“It is all the time an essential race, particularly for the sprinters, ?” he stated. “In fact, the climbers will win [overall] right here with Jabal Hafeet and Jabel Jais, however by way of the entire sprinters in a single place at one time, there is not any different race like this on this planet.
“So it is essential for us as sprinters and for our workforce and it is good to attempt to get the ball rolling early within the yr.”
With so many prime fastmen – Caleb Ewan, Arnaud Demaré, Fernando Gaviria, Sam Bennett, and Tim Merlier, amongst others – assembled at UAE, Cavendish argued that the dash area could possibly be thought-about of a better high quality than even the Tour de France.
“In all probability a better focus of sprinters right here than within the Tour so it is very, essential to us,” he stated. “And on a private stage, it is essential, I spend a variety of time right here and Abu Dhabi is sort of a second dwelling. So I am all the time completely satisfied to be right here.”
Requested to supply some extra info as to his squad and his expectations within the UAE Tour, Cavendish recognised, “it is a comparatively new workforce to the world of sprinting. However we’re right here as a result of it offers the right alternative to hone and construct the workforce to trip within the finals of the bunch sprints.”
The UAE’s predilection for “massive large roads” in “lengthy, flat” finales, Cavendish identified, are perfect for that.
Cavendish additionally praised the UAE’s state-wide efforts to advertise biking and the persevering with improvement of its biking infrastructure, saying that he is “personally been proud to witness” it.
What the UAE will witness by way of Cavendish’s sprints this February stays to be seen. However as quickly as Monday afternoon on Mirfa’s barely descending last kilometre and – in response to the route e-book at the least – a pointy right-hand bend within the final 500 metres, a primary reply will probably be supplied.
