There has been a burst in the sporting scene in the UAE over the past decade but few sports have exploded the way cycling has in the emirates in the last two years.
While the country has been pouring money into hosting major events, hoping that as a byproduct, the younger generation would get inspired by world champions and take up the sport, the UAE’s strategy to boost cycling worked the other way round.
Before bringing in the world’s best to pedal around the streets of Dubai or Abu Dhabi, they started building the infrastructure that would allow cyclists to train in a safe environment and raised interest for the sport by targeting youngsters in schools and clubs.
That, coupled with the immense enthusiasm for cycling from the expat community in the country, means that on any given Friday morning, you can find groups and groups of cyclists pedaling down Al Qudra road towards the Al Qudra Cycle Course, or looping the Nad Al Sheba Cycle Park.
Drop by the Dubai Autodrome on a Wednesday night, and you’ll find it open to cyclists who flock to Motor City for Revolution Nights. The same goes for Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday evenings.
Pass by the Zayed Velodrome in Sharjah and you can see teenage Emirati girls with headscarves practicing on the track or roaming the roads around the venue.
Just consider buying a bike and you’ll find countless stores and suppliers to choose from.
And take a glance at the sporting calendar and you’ll see it jam-packed with amateur cycling events that would grab the attention of even the most casual of bikers.
Even the National Day celebrations last year, that are usually famous for the car parades, included a bicycle marathon, dubbed “Flag to Flag”, that saw hundreds of cyclists traverse more than 150km from the flagpole in Jumeirah in Dubai to the flagpole in Abu Dhabi.
There’s no denying that cycling is on the rise and it is not by coincidence, but by strategy, particularly in Dubai.
The northern emirate has seen almost 200km of cycle paths built in various neighbourhoods thanks to the Dubai Bicycle Master Plan of the Road and Transport Authority (RTA). RTA’s plan aims to build 850km of strategic bikeways in central business district areas and newly developed localities as suitable transit alternatives for cycling enthusiasts.
The ones built already include the 67km Al Qudra Cycle Course and a 23km-long track along
Jumeirah Street.
The Nad Al Sheba Cycle Park is another safe option and it includes three various distances of loops – four, six and eight km with lights available for cycling at night.
The annual Nad Al Sheba race held in Ramadan has become a hit for the local cyclists and it gave the Emirati beginners a taste of competition.
The UAE National Federation Team now has almost 30 cyclists representing the country in international competitions, two of whom managed to qualify to the world championships thanks to some decent showings in Asia.
“This progress that you can see in UAE cycling is due to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai,” the UAE Cycling Federation technical team manager Abdullah Suwaidan told Sport360°.
“He’s the one who gave us a major boost. He took the young cyclists under his wing, he created the Nad Al Sheba cycling competition in Ramadan which has helped us a lot and he’s the reason the federation sent out cyclists to France recently for a training camp. Even our plane tickets were issued by his office.”
Sheikh Hamdan is an avid cyclist and he regularly posts videos and photos on his Instagram account of his various cycling escapades around the country.
He also paved the way for the creation of the UAE’s first professional cycling team, Skydive Dubai.
All this led to the Dubai Tour, which had its inaugural edition this year in February. A four-stage race that brought together the world’s very best teams and riders, competing in the UAE for the very first time.
Qatar and Oman had been hosting major tours for years and it was finally time for Dubai to catch up with its neighbours.
It proved a huge success and has already been upgraded to a 2.HC category on the UCI Asia calendar.
A lot of progress can be seen and felt but somehow it seems this is all just the tip of the iceberg.
