The first edition of the Abu Dhabi Tour stage race gets underway Thursday. The race organization represents a unique cooperation between RCS, the organizer of the Giro d’Italia, and Velon, the joint venture of 11 UCI WorldTour cycling teams. The race features four stages, of which three are pan flat and one is a medium mountain stage with the finish at 1,000m. The race concludes on Sunday with a circuit race on the Yas Marina F1 circuit.

Giant-Alpecin coach Aike Visbeek said: “There are three mainly flat stages in Abu Dhabi and we will focus on the sprints there. For the GC we need to wait and see how Tom has recovered from a busy schedule. Our main focus will be to win a stage.”

Line-up

Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Johannes Fröhlinger (GER)
Cheng Ji (CHN)
Marcel Kittel (GER)
Luka Mezgec (SLO)
Albert Timmer (NED)