Organisers unveil grand plans to take Tour of Dubai to world stage

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  • Looking ahead: The goal now is to make the Dubai race a World Tour event.

    Organisers of the Dubai Tour believe their event is worthy of becoming a UCI World Tour event, and have revealed ambitions of making it a 12-stage showpiece instead of its current four.

    In just its second year, the Dubai Tour was upgraded from 2.1 categorisation on the Asian Pro Tour to 2.HC. But when asked if they see the race becoming part of the UCI World Tour in the future, Lorenzo Giorgetti of RCS Sport said: “I think the UCI have set the criteria for World Tour events.

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    “It includes the safety of the rider, the quality of TV production, the hospitality – and I think that Mark (Cavendish) can witness that the level of investment the Dubai Sports Council has done in order to book this wonderful hotel, build an entire paddock – and then also the engagement with the fans and the general public.

    “So if you can put these four criteria in an Excel file and compare them to many other races, I believe that the Dubai Tour has all the right to claim for a World Tour race.”

    Mark Cavendish lifts the trophy after winning the Dubai Tour on Saturday.

    Italian company, RCS Sport, and Dubai Sports Council (DSC) have combined to produce the Dubai Tour, in its current format of four stages.

    Saeed Hareb of the DSC, who is the chairman of the organising committee, admits that he dreams of developing the event and adding more stages, although he didn’t share a timeline on when that will be possible.

    “Our challenge is to be one of the top races in the world. There is no end to the possibilities and no end to the dream. If we can organise four stages, it is not difficult to organise 12 stages,” said Hareb on Saturday.

    “We want to grow, but there is no hurry. Our dream is to be there, but how, where and when? I think we need more experience and give our people here the time to be in a position to take on more than 10-12 stages.”

    Dubai Tour champion, Cavendish, paid tribute to the success of the race.

    "I think the globalisation of cycling is extremely important for the growth of the sport, but it has to be done right though, and races like this in Dubai definitely do that right,” said Cavendish, a winner of over 120 stages throughout his career.

    “There are some races that didn’t quite work and it kind of messed things up in the season. But definitely short tours like this, they’re growing, you can see from one year to the next it’s already stepped up a level, it’s definitely a move in the right direction.

    “In countries that cycling is actually becoming popular, it’s a big step forward, I think it’s what cycling needs.”

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