One of the fastest growing and most popular sports in the Middle East announced yesterday that Dubai has been granted the rights to hold an event on the UCI World Cycling Amateur Tour.
The Dubai Gran Fondo will be the third event on this year's UCI World Cycling Tour, a series of events held around the world where amateurs can compete in road races.
The tour consists of 13 qualifying events for the UCI World Amateur Road Championships in Denmark in September. The first two events on the calendar took place last year in Australia and South Africa, and attracted 5,000 and 10,000 riders respectively.
This is the fifth season of the Tour, and organisers are delighted to be bringing the event to Dubai.
"One of the aims of this tour is the global promotion of "Cycling for All", and with cycling in the UAE becoming so popular, we are pleased to be bringing this event to the Middle East for the first time," the organisers said in a statement.
"Dubai's cycling calendar is expanding rapidly, and the addition of this event is an important step in the development of cycling in Dubai. We have so many keen amateur and masters cyclists here, and now they have an opportunity to represent their countries on the world stage. This event will further promote the growth of cycling in the region, give amateur local cyclists the opportunity to compete in an international UCI event, and attract international amateur cyclists to Dubai." These events are part of the vision of the Dubai Sports Council to promote the sport in the emirate, and has the full support of the UAE Cycling Federation.
The Dubai event will consist of a 130km road race around the streets of Dubai on 20th March, starting and finishing at the purpose built Dubai Cycling course at Al Qudra.
The competition is divided into age group categories, and the top 25% of finishers in each age group will qualify for the World Championships. Both male and female riders race in one of the eight age groups.
Source: WAM