Dubai Tour winner Elia Viviani delighted to see Dubai residents out on their bikes

Matt Jones - Editor 10:19 11/02/2018
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  • Victory may have been the biggest thing on his mind during his visit to the Emirates this week, but Elia Viviani was also delighted to see the amount of people riding their bikes in Dubai.

    The Italian won Stage 2 and 5 of the Dubai Tour to take overall victory, avoiding a pile-up on the final corner on Saturday to sprint to stage victory ahead of Marco Haller and Adam Blythe and overall victory too, finishing 12 seconds in front of Astana’s Magnus Cort Nielsen in second and 14 ahead of third-placed Bahrain-Merida man Sonny Colbrelli.

    Viviani had spent longer in the UAE than his fellow Quick-Step Floors colleagues, arriving 10 days before the race. And part of his preparations for the Tour was spent riding along the Al Qudra Cycle Track on the outskirts of the city, where he pleasantly surprised by the amount of fellow enthusiasts joining him.

    “I spent a good week here in Dubai and I also enjoyed the city, so I can understand how many tourists are around and also how many cyclists are around,” said the 29-year-old sprint king following his victory.

    “I’m pretty surprised when last Saturday we went to the bike track in Al Qudra, it was a full crowd at 08:00 in the morning. So it was amazing to see how many people go on the bike.”

    Although winning is of paramount importance to the teams and riders, part of the legacy of the event – and the Abu Dhabi Tour which takes place at the end of this month – is to encourage and invest in the sport outside these races.

    And Enrico Fili, of race organisers RCS Sport, was delighted by the support for the fifth edition of the race.

    “I would like to underline the main thing we noticed about this year is that we saw a lot of people around the race,” said Fili.

    “For us it’s a big success. It means the Dubai Tour has made the culture of cycling grow in this country so normal people are starting to watch the Dubai Tour.

    “This was the fifth edition and we see how many people attended all five stages and this is something that’s very important to us.”

    And, as the dust settled on the event, joint race organisers, the Dubai Sports Council, insist arrangements are already under way to plan the sixth edition next year.

    “The event is in its fifth year and we are now looking forward to the sixth edition,” said DSC secretary general Saeed Hareb.

    “Spectator-wise today we saw how many people were at the finish line. There were more this year and we hope next year there will be more again.

    “We are waiting for the feedback from the teams and whether they are happy with it. It’s a growing project. It’s the first time we covered two ports, Jebel Ali Port and Rashid Port. I’m sure they enjoyed it. Old Dubai and new Dubai, and we will see what the next step is.

    “We will have a meeting immediately after the race to see what is going to happen. We will keep going and working on it. We will work together with RCS. We work as one family, one team, just an agreement is to be signed.”

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