Skydive Dubai count on local knowledge for upcoming AD Tour

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  • Upbeat: Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling.

    Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling team are hoping their familiarity with UAE heat can give them some advantage in the upcoming Abu Dhabi Tour next month.

    The inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour, which kicks off in three weeks, will see some of the best riders in the world tackle some unforgiving conditions in the UAE desert, the roads of Abu Dhabi as well as a tricky third stage that takes them up to Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain.

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    Local pro team, Skydive Dubai, came back to the Emirates earlier this month to get accustomed to the heat and humidity and perhaps have a leg up on the rest of the teams who will be flying in from Europe just before the four-stage race.

    “The UAE is still hot at the moment compared to other parts of the world. In terms of metabolism, we should adapt the riders for that so we brought them back a bit earlier to try and acclimatise to these conditions,” Skydive Dubai team manager Ricardo Martins told Sport360.

    “Because the mountain stage will be hot, we hope we can have some advantage over the others in terms of being accustomed to the heat.”

    Martins says the addition of the Abu Dhabi Tour to the UAE cycling calendar will be very beneficial to Skydive Dubai, who have made rapid progress in the sport over the past two years.

    The Abu Dhabi Tour will kick off in three weeks with some of the biggest names in action.

    “It means a lot. It’s another major event in the UAE. It’s one that comes to enforce the importance of the country in global cycling. After the success of the Dubai Tour, I’m sure they’ll have the same success globally,” said Martins.

    “We now have another 2.2 international race in the UAE and in the beginning of December we have a 1.2 UCI international race, so that’s a fourth international race in the country. It’s amazing. It’s an exponential growth in the last three to five years for cycling in the UAE. Mark Cavendish is here, Vincenzo Nibali was here earlier in the year, all the big teams and big guys are coming, so it’s great.”

    On how the Dubai Tour has helped his team evolve, Martins added: “They’ve benefitted a lot in terms of competition and motivation also. The inaugural Dubai Tour was the first race for the team and our guys were struggling a lot. This year, we saw our local riders comfortable in the peloton and being protagonists in the race. I mean we saw Mohammed Al Murawwi some hours at the front of the race which is a huge evolution within one or two years.”

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