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The UAE Tour takes place from the twentieth to twenty sixth February and takes in 7 levels throughout the United Arab Emirates.
UAE Tour – All the things you must know, together with the route, favourites and outsiders for the WorldTour race.
Be a part of Cyclingnews’ protection of the UAE Tour Ladies with race stories, outcomes, picture galleries, information and race evaluation.
Stage 1
The 2023 UAE Tour begins because it did in 2021 from Al Dhafra Fortress to Al Mirfa. It seems like a easy stage on paper with only a few corners, however riders should be cautious of crosswinds, particularly on the open desert roads. That is the place Lorena Wiebes took an emphatic victory forward of her former lead-out rider Charlotte Kool in stage 2 of the inaugural UAE Tour Ladies final week. If the wind would not break the bunch into echelons, this must be a showdown of the peloton’s best sprinters.
Stage 2
Stage 2 provides the groups an opportunity to indicate off the work they put in in the course of the winter with a staff time trial on a flat, broad and easy parcours. The stage begins and finishes in Khalifa Port and the one technical components include two 180° turns. The common speeds must be very excessive and the chief’s jersey will nearly actually be shifting away from the sprinters, because the best-equipped groups for a time trial will likely be these containing basic classification contenders. The 17.3km course will give groups who’re most adept on the self-discipline a possibility to create large gaps earlier than the primary mountain stage.
Stage 3
The GC riders will both be happy with the day prior to this’s efficiency or left wanting extra, and the third stage from Umbrella Seaside Al Fujairah to Jebel Jais provides them the prospect to make amends. Jebel Jais is 19km in size however solely has a median gradient of 5.6% which permits some heavier riders to stick with the pure climbers, with the steepest sections topping out at 9%. This has led to small group sprints on the prime of the climb with the bonus seconds on the road turning into crucial achieve. The final two winners up Jebel Jais had been Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Stage 4
Stage 4 could have the quick males excited once more and provides us an early look into which staff’s lead-out trains are firing on all cylinders. It will likely be an extended 173.9km day within the saddle from Al Shindagha to Dubai Harbour nevertheless, the riders may not should worry the crosswinds as a lot as they did on stage 1. Anticipate a much less thrilling run-in with an equally explosive dash end.
Stage 5
Stage 5 presents the same alternative for the plethora of different top-tier sprinters who’re nonetheless itching to get their fingers within the air on the end. The 170km route from Al Marjan Island to the brand new ending location Umm al Quwain is basically on straight, flat roads so must be comparatively easy for the lead-out trains to remain organised. The roundabouts within the remaining few hundred metres are the one potential drawback.
Stage 6
Stage 6 from Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi to Abu Dhabi Breakwater is a end now we have seen earlier than within the UAE, most just lately within the UAE Tour ladies the place Charlotte Kool slingshotted out of Lorena Wiebes’ slipstream to take her second victory of that race. The highway veers to the left within the remaining few hundred metres, and Mark Cavendish used this function in final 12 months’s males’s race to legally reduce off Danny van Poppel’s lead-out for Sam Bennett and maintain off Jasper Philipsen for his first World Tour victory of that season. That is the final dash shootout of the UAE Tour so there will likely be a substantial combat for positioning within the latter kilometres.
Stage 7
The ultimate stage has develop into the traditional mountain take a look at of the UAE Tour, ending on Jebel Hafeet after passing symbolic landmarks on the preliminary 143.4km. The 10km climb will likely be a defining level of the race and would be the final likelihood for these hopeful of successful the crimson jersey to make the distinction. It would set the purest climbers other than those that may survive on the much less harsh gradients of Jebel Jais as its steepest sections are above 11% with the common nearer to 7% making it laborious sufficient for gaps to type. Regardless of this, there have been carefully fought battles to the road on the final three events with Tadej Pogačar taking a hattrick of Jebel Hafeet levels within the course of. We are going to doubtless see the very best climbers on the race battle it out in a similar way however with Remco Evenepoel provisionally set to begin the race, we may see somebody arrive solo.
