The first edition of the Abu Dhabi Tour (8-11 October 2015), organised by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council in partnership with RCS Sports and Events, starts tomorrow afternoon amid the astonishing desert beauty of Qasr Al Sarab at 12.50pm Gulf Standard Time (GST). The official Start List is now available.
Starters include:
- Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team): A brilliant climber and the winner of his first Grand Tour, the three-week Tour of Spain, just a month ago.
- Tom Boonen (Etixx - Quick Step): One of the greatest one-day riders in history. A former World Champion, he has won the Paris-Roubaix four times and the Tour of Flanders three times. Amazing!
- Esteban Chaves (ORICA GreenEDGE): The upcoming climber in world cycling, he was race leader during the recent Vuelta a España, where he won two stages. We also saw him attacking alongside Vincenzo Nibali in Il Lombardia last Sunday.
- Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant - Alpecin): We knew that Tom was one of the best time-triallists in the world. In August and September, we found out that he is also one of the best three-week racers. The revelation of the season.
- Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team): A great one-day champion, the winner of three Amstel Gold Races, two Tours of Lombardy, one Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the 2012 World Champion.
- Marcel Kittel (Team Giant Alpecin): An astonishing sprinter, the winner of stages in all three Grand Tours, including eight stages in the Tour de France.
- Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Pro Team): One of a tiny handful of riders in cycling history who have won all three Grand Tours and, on Sunday, the winner of his first one-day Monument, Il Lombardia.
- Peter Sagan (Tinkoff - Saxo): One of the most talented and exciting riders most of us have ever seen, the winner of the past four points jerseys at the Tour de France, and, of course, the new reigning World Champion.
- Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team): Four times the winner of the UCI WorldTour Ranking – in other words, the world's number one rider.
- Elia Viviani (Team Sky): A champion sprinter on the track and on the road, and the winner of a Giro d'Italia stage in May.
- Xu Gang (Lampre - Merida): A climber from a new cycling nation, China.
You can find the complete start list below.
Julian POCHACKER 25 years | today |
Rick AMPLER 35 years | today |
Oliver WOOD 29 years | today |
Zouhair RAHIL 31 years | today |
Mattias NORDAL 23 years | today |
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