WorldTour returns Thursday with the Abu Dhabi Tour
Quintana, Aru, Contador and Nibali to chase GC; Ewan, Cavendish and Kittel after sprint wins
The WorldTour’s expanded schedule includes its next two races, the Abu Dhabi Tour and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the first action since the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in late January. The Abu Dhabi Tour in the United Arab Emirates used to be an October race but for its third edition it has moved to late winter.
It’s pretty simple: win on the stage that features the summit finish the Jebel Hafeet and win the Abu Dhabi Tour. This has been the pattern for Esteban Chaves and Tanel Kangert’s victories over the last two years. Before and after that key stage there’s plenty of sprinting.
Should be interesting to see if anyone can beat Chavito's time up Jebel Hafeet. He was very fast: https://t.co/2fWeZmzQHf #AbuDhabiTour pic.twitter.com/2HROI7V2NW
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) October 22, 2016
In each of the first two editions, there was a sprinter who won two stages–in 2014 it was Elia Viviani (Sky) and last year it was Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data). Cavendish is back and will have competition from Germans Marcel Kittel (Quick Step), winner of the Dubai Tour, and Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), who took the points competition at the Volta ao Algarve with a stage victory.
Another fastman to watch is Australian Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott), who earned four stage triumphs at the Tour Down Under.
The GC lineup is chockablock with talent. Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar), winner of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, meets Alberto Contador (Spain/Trek-Segafredo), who couldn’t quite squeak by Quintana’s teammate Alejandro Valverde in the Ruta Del Sol. Fabio Aru (Italy/Astana) podiumed at the Tour of Oman where Romain Bardet (France/AG2R) found a crash scuppering his GC aspirations.
Add returning champion Kangert (Estonia/Astana), Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/UAE-Abu Dhabi), Dutchmen Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha-Alpecin) and you have a recipe for a tasty showdown on Jebel Hafeet on February 25.
