Dubai Tour can help popularise cycling in the region

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  • Confident: Saeed Hareb truly believes the Dubai Tour will be a major success.

    Organisers of the Dubai Tour are aware that cycling is yet to attract the kind of attention directed to other sports in the UAE – but insist the first edition of the event will give a much-needed boost to the sport in the country.

    The Dubai Tour is now one of three back-to-back professional cycling events in the Gulf region, with the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman coming up this month.

    And Saeed Hareb, the Chairman of the Dubai Tour Higher Committee, says there won’t be any rivalry between each event and instead they will complement each other.

    “No, we’re not competing with anyone, we’re competing with ourselves,” said Hareb. “Our aim is to bring our race to the highest standard and to create trust between us and the competitors coming to race in Dubai. Providing the facilities, providing a safe race, that’s more important than tocompete with other tours. I wish both Qatar and Oman have successful races.

    “Since we announced this competition I can say the number of road cyclists in the country has jumped by 50 per cent.

    “Our addition is a plus for cycling in the region in general. I think the three Tours will increase the interest from the locals for sure.”

    Hareb explained how the Tour aims to help advance the careers of the Emirati riders who are looking for opportunities to step up to the professional circuit.

    “New blood is coming to Dubai,” he added. “This event is about how to take cycling from national to international from an organisational side and how we can push our national team more to compete in top racing in the future.

    “It’s not easy for us the first year, the residents might not necessarily take it, but through this race we want to build a relation.

    “We have a three-year contract but I’m sure we are going to extend it.”

    The Dubai Tour is organised by the Dubai Sports Council in collaboration with RCS Sport, who put together some world class tours such as the Giro d’Italia.

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