Abu Dhabi Tour: Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai ‘very proud’ about debut in race

The press conference was opened by the Official Abu Dhabi Tour Ambassador, Mark Cavendish. In attendance alongside the Manxman were Giro d’Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali (Italy), seven time overall Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador (Spain), the duo of puncheurs John Degenkolb (Germany) and Michael Matthews (Australia), sprinter André Greipel (Germany), Rio 2016 gold medalists Elia Viviani (Omnium) from Italy and Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet (Individual Road Race), Costa Rican rider Andrey Amador and local hero Yousif Mirza, the highest profile rider in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi: Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai are ‘very proud’ to be flying the flag for the UAE as the sole Emirati team in the 2016 Abu Dhabi Tour as they rub shoulders with some of the hottest names of the sport over the next four days.

Led by Yousuf Mirza, who competed in the road race at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Al Nasr are the second professional cycling team in the UAE along with Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team — Al Ahli.

They were launched at the start of the year by the Al Nasr Sports Club and took part in February’s Dubai Tour.

This will be their debut in the Abu Dhabi Tour, however, the second edition of which gets under way on Thursday. “It will be a great experience for Nasr and local riders to race with the biggest riders in the world and we are very proud to be part of this,” Mirza said.

“The Abu Dhabi Tour on the World Tour is a very good step. When something big happens in your country, it makes it bigger, you feel prouder than normal. We’re really happy to see cycling growing so quickly here.”

Mirza, 28, qualified to represent the UAE at the Olympic road race in Rio after he claimed the silver medal at the 2015 Asian Cycling Championship. He’s a four-time and reigning UAE Road Race champion. “The experience of riding the Olympics was amazing. Now the Abu Dhabi Tour will show that we have strong cycling in the UAE.”

Mirza and his teammates will line up alongside cycling luminaries such as Mark Cavendish and Alberto Contador in the four-stage, 555-kilometre event.

With 30 Tour de France stage wins to his name, Cavendish is regarded as the greatest sprinter in the history of cycling and the official ambassador of the Abu Dhabi Tour.

The Spanish legend Contador is a two-time Tour de France champion and he and Cavendish will be bidding to compensate for the absence of Sir Bradley Wiggins.

The five-time Olympic champion withdrew last week as controversy continues to swirl over his use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) to take a banned substance.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Tour’s worldwide importance has been exemplified by the news that coverage of the four stages will be broadcast in 177 countries, across all five continents. Thirteen television networks will broadcast the race, seven of them live.

Abu Dhabi Sports, the host broadcaster, will produce and show the full coverage of each stage, from the first turn of the pedals to the finish-line victories, in the UAE and across the whole Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

Abu Dhabi Tour: Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai ‘very proud’ about debut in race

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