Male Team 21 - 27 Feb
UAE Tour
1044 Kilometers 7 Stages
The race will be broadcast live on Eurosport, Eurosport Player y GCN+.
The 2021 UCI WorldTour kicks off in the Middle East. After the Australian rounds of the series were cancelled for this year, the top teams in cycling will battle out for glory for the first time in 2021 at the UAE Tour, which came to an abrupt end last season -the last two stages were cancelled- as the prelude of a pandemic whose consequences we couldn’t certainly expect twelve months ago.
On fast, flat roads –four stages suiting the sprinters at Al Mirfa (Sunday 21st), Al Marjan (Wednesday 24th), Dubai (Friday 26th) and Abu Dhabi (Saturday 27th)- and against likely strong winds, which can always play a factor in the desert, the decisive stages will be, nonetheless, the other three. Monday 22nd will mark the first duel for the GC contenders, with a 13km ITT in Al Hudayriat, completely flat and along the sea, with easy turns that make for perfect terrain for the specialists.
Stages three and five will bring the race’s two mountain-top finish. No Hatta dam slope this year, though, as the riders tackle the traditional Jebel Hafeet (10.8km at 5.4%) and, more importantly, Jebel Jais, already climbed in 2019, whose 20.6km at 5,4% will decide the overall outcome.