Fabio Aru signs with UAE-Emirates

Somewhat lost in the hoopla of next year’s Tour de France route being unveiled in Paris on Tuesday, UAE-Emirates confirmed what has been speculated in cycling circles since the summer: Fabio Aru has signed with the team for three years.

It’s official, #UAETeamEmirates in the Italian rider’s future , welcome @FabioAru1 ??. ?

?: https://t.co/0PNNMR0cWG pic.twitter.com/T4IyD7deQK

— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamUAEAbuDhabi) October 17, 2017

Aru first rose to prominence with a podium at the 2014 Giro d’Italia before a huge 2015 in which he placed runner-up in the Giro and won the Vuelta a España. Since then his Grand Tour accomplishments have been satisfactory, with fifth in this year’s Tour after leading for two stages, his Grand Tour high mark over the last two seasons.

Astana now has Colombian Angel Lopez as its main Grand Tour threat. After a long early season of recovery, Lopez busted out at the Vuelta, winning two stages and finishing eighth to Aru’s 13th. Aru seemed to be miffed with the team switching its support to the Colombian, who was showing better form than his Italian teammate.

Aru is theoretically the biggest WorldTour transfer based on his Grand Tour win. Here are seven other big signings in the transfer market.

Dan Martin (Quick Step to UAE-Emirates): Aru joins Irishman Martin as new boys at UAE, giving the team two formidable weapons. Caught up in Richie Porte’s crash at the Tour de France, Martin placed sixth while nursing two fractured vertebrae. Martin is more of a Monuments man than Aru, having won Il Lombardia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Marcel Kittel (Quick Step to Katusha): Another Quick Step departure, Kittel heads to Katusha as Fernando Gaviria takes over as Quick Step’s official fast man. Kittel is a proven winner, with 88 victories on his palmares, including five stages in this year’s Tour.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha to UAE-Emirates): Runner-up to Peter Sagan at this year’s Worlds, the Norwegian moves on to make room for Kittel after six years with the Russian outfit, a period in which he took all but one of his 65 victories. He has won Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. I guess you can say UAE is reloading.

Warren Barguil (Sunweb to Fortuneo-Oscaro): One of the earlier transfers, it’s also the most baffling. After exploding in the Tour de France, where he won two stages and the King of the Mountains competition while placing 10th, Barguil signed with one of the Pro Continental wild card teams that was racing in France. At the Vuelta Barguil was sent home for not riding for eventual fourth place finisher Wilco Kelderman.

Mikel Landa (Sky to Movistar): Landa emerged from a sort of fugue state at this July’s Tour, climbing with authority. He would have finished higher than fourth if he hadn’t been working for Chris Froome. Landa languished at Sky after a Grand Tour high of third at the 2015 Giro where his Astana teammate Aru came runner-up. He’s exactly what Movistar needs right now. He’ll probably work the one-two punch with Nairo Quintana at next year’s Tour while Alejandro Valverde targets the Giro.

Matteo Trentin (Quick Step to Orica-Scott): Italian Trentin is a versatile rider who has won stages in all three Grand Tours including four triumphs in the Vuelta this year. Although he’s always one to mark in the spring Classics and semi-Classics, his best performance is third in E3 Harelbeke.

Louis Meintjes (UAE-Emirates to Dimension Data): The South African’s move to Lampre from Dimension Data’s earlier incarnation MTN-Qhubeka didn’t make much sense to me at the time, but it only slowed the Grand Tour top-10 mainstay a little. His eighth in this year’s Tour and 12th in the Vuelta underscore what kind of rider he is: steady but quiet, with a minimum of attacking. He heads back to Dimension Data as the GC man on a team of stage hunters.