Abu Dhabi Tour: Marquee names headline second WorldTour stage race of 2018

It was a literal ‘who’s who’ of professional cycling making up the pre-race press conference panel on Tuesday at the home of the Formula One in Abu Dhabi — the Yas Marina Circuit.

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors), Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and a pair of UAE-Team Emirates teammates — including Fabio Aru and last year’s race winner Rui Costa — all flanked the 24-carat gold-plated trophy ‘Golden Grit’ designed by Italian GDE Bertoni, who is well known for the production of the FIFA World Cup.

Other typical headliners like Alexander Kristoff, also of UAE-Team Emirates, André Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) may have been noticeably absent at the presser, but not on the startlist, nor from conversation.

For 2013 world road race champion Costa, the new-look five-day WorldTour stage race, provides a noticeable challenge with a 12.6-kilometre individual time trial on the penultimate stage followed by what should be the decider — the hilltop finish atop Jebel Hafeet, featuring 10.8km ascent after 189km spent with an average gradient of 6.6 percent and a max of 11.

“The new route with a time trial changes the tactic,” said the 31-year-old Portuguese rider who won the Jebel Hafeet stage in 2017 en route to a general classification victory.

While Costa is battling out with Dumoulin, Dennis, Valverde, Majka and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) for GC on the final 199km queen stage, the world’s best sprinters will be rubbing elbows and trading paint in what has been a blistering month of racing in the Middle East, starting with the Dubai Tour won by Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) and the Tour of Oman, won by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana).

Fellow former world champion Mark Cavendish (2011), who equalled his 2017 win tally with a Stage 3 victory at the Dubai Tour early this month, has three stage wins from Abu Dhabi in the past two seasons to make him the all-time race leader. However, the 30-stage winner who is second all-time in the Tour de France history book, admitted this year may be a bit more difficult given the GC team surrounding him.

“My legs were all right again in Oman after my stage victory in Dubai,” Cavendish claimed. “It makes it a long time racing in the Middle East, but it’s an honour to come back to Abu Dhabi.

One rider on a hot-streak is Viviani, who won the overall at Dubai Tour after winning two stages including the finale. The Stage 5 win gave Viviani three total including a stage win at Tour Down Under against fellow 2018 TDU stage winners Greipel (two) and Ewan (one).

“I’ve had an amazing start to the season in Australia, which continued with winning the Dubai Tour, but I want more,” admitted Viviani. “I’ve spent one week at home after a long way away.

“For the Abu Dhabi Tour, we have a very strong team and Julian Alaphilippe for GC. The world’s best sprinters are here,” he continued. “The addition of André Greipel and Caleb Ewan will not change the dynamic of the sprints we had in Dubai — we expect really powerful sprints again.”