The inaugural Dubai Tour presents residents of the Emirate with a wonderful chance to watch some of the best riders in the world compete across four epic stages.
The riders will cover some 417km across four days so there will be plenty of opporunties to see these wonderful athletes in action.
To help you see exactly which spot is the best, Sport360° has explained each stage and even provided a map, so there is no excuse for missing any of the action.
STAGE 1: DOWNTOWN STAGE (10 km)
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This is a 10km individual time trial, which means it is a race against the clock. Each rider starts the competition at different times and the winner is the one who scores the lowest time on the route.
The stage starts and ends at the Dubai World Trade Centre and will see the cyclists ride five kilometres towards Burj Khalifa, via the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid boulevard – in the Downtown area – then take a u-turn in front of the iconic building – the tallest in the world – back to the DWTC.
The first rider will start at 13:05, and the rest will follow in equal intervals. This race will favour riders like three-time world champion Tony Martin, Swiss veteran Fabian Cancellara and American Taylor Phinney.
STAGE 2: SPORT STAGE (121 km)
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A sprint stage that will put the likes of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel and Alessandro Petacchi to the test. This is a flat stage in which the race is determined at the very last second, with a bunch sprint finish.
Riders will start at 12:25 at the DWTC and will traverse 121km passing Meydan racecourse, Hamdan Sports Complex, Al Qudra Cycle Track, Motor City, going through Dubai Marina and Al Sufouh road to finish at Atlantis.
STAGE 3: NATURE STAGE (162 km)
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The longest and most challenging stage of the Tour will take the cyclists through the desert from Dubai to Sharjah to Ras Al Khaimah and finally to Hatta. It represents the queen stage in that it is the only stage to feature climbs of any note with summits at 495m and 417m.
Climbers such as Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez or all-rounders like Vicenzo Nibali and Rui Costa will hope to make some gains on the sprinters and timetrialists in this stage, to try and make progress in the General Classification, but the tame climbs should not really trouble the non-climbers. Riders start at 11:30am from the DWTC.
STAGE 4: OLD DUBAI STAGE (124 km)
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The inaugural Dubai Tour will conclude with a flat sprint stage around the city. It follows a street circuit that takes riders from the DWTC down Sheikh Zayed Road, then across to Jumeirah via Um Suqeim road.
The riders will cover the entire Jumeirah area and will get to whiz past past landmarks such as the seven- star Burj Al Arab hotel and Jumeirah Beach Park. They will return back to Downtown via Safa street to finally cross the finish line at Burj Khalifa.
A dream bunch sprint can see Cavendish, Kittel, Peter Sagan, Mark Renshaw and Alessandro Petacchi treat the crowd to a great battle under the shadow of the world’s tallest skyscraper – the spectacular Burj Khalifa
