New Dubai Tour draws Hesjedal and other stars
The inaugural Dubai Tour launches on Feb. 8 in the largest city of the United Arab Emirates, and several cycling stars will line up with their teams to contest the UCI 2.1-rated race. Giro d’Italia organizer RCS Sport’s Dubai Tour is the first race on the Asian Tour and runs more than four stages.
Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) makes his season debut in Dubai. His American teammate Tyler Farrar and BMC’s Thor Hushovd (Norway) will be dicing in the sprints with Mark Cavendish (Great Britain/Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who recently led out teammate Tom Boonen in the Tour de San Luis’ Stage 3. The fast men will all be wary of Marcel Kittel (Germany/Giant-Shimano), who was quiet in the Tour Down Under after winning the prelude crit in Adelaide.
Just about to leave London for Spain. Ready to get back with @Ride_Argyle crew. Next stop @dubaitour !
— Ryder Hesjedal (@ryder_hesjedal) January 30, 2014
World champion Rui Costa (Portugal/Lampre-Merida) will be showing off the rainbow jersey, perhaps to Katusha rider Joaquim Rodriguez’s consternation. The Tour de San Luis revealed that Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) has a lot of work to do before he’s ready for the Tour de France. The Dubai Tour’s opening stage, a 10-km time trial, will be hotly contested, with Taylor Phinney (USA/BMC), Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland/Trek) and Tony Martin (Germany/Omega Pharma) ready for the chrono.
Eleven WorldTour teams will be on hand to battle for the blue leader’s jersey, blue points jersey and white young rider jersey. Four continental squads and the United Arab Emirates national team complete the field.
