Abu Dhabi to stage world’s richest bike race
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi is to stage the world’s richest cycling race in November.
Individual and team winners of three major international events on the cycling calendar will be going head-to-head in the first event of its kind.
The Race of Champions will take place over three stages and cover 212km.
Taking part will be winners from the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and La Vuelta in Spain.
Tarek Al Kays, CEO of Kenzay Abu Dhabi, the company which has partnered Unipublic – the Spanish-based international cycling events specialist – to organise the event, said there had been a massive interest in the Abu Dhabi race.
“We are receiving calls daily from companies and professional teams in the UAE and places as far as Australia, South Africa and Switzerland who want to enter the race,” said Al Kays.
He said in addition to the six team places, six wild cards would be awarded, with the UAE national team also included in the line-up.
Al Kays said the idea for the race originated from the drive to promote Abu Dhabi as a prestigious global destination. “We did some research and one of the sports which really doesn’t exist on a large scale in the Middle East is cycling,” he said.
“We made some good contacts in Europe and came to an agreement with a Spanish company to come up with a novel concept, not just another tour,” he added.
“That’s how we decided on this race which combines all the championship teams competing for the highest prize money in the world. The winner will earn more than the winners of the three tour events combined.”
Ian Jarrett
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