Francisco Mancebo will continue to ride for the SkyDive Dubai Pro Cycling Team in 2015. A source close to the continental team from the United Arab Amirates has told Biciciclismo that the Spaniard has signed a contract for another season. For 38-year-old Mancebo, it will be his 18th season in the professional peloton after he turned pro in 1998 with Banesto.

In 2014, Mancebo added to his excellent palmares by taking two wins, the overall classification and a stage in the Tour de Kumano (2.2, Japan). He was also 3rd in the Tour of Thailand (2.2), 4th in the recent Sharjah Tour (2.2) and 5th in the Chief Minister Melaka Tour (1.2), and won several medals at the Arab Games. Finally, he won the Spanish marathon championships on his mountain bike.

Mancebo debuted at Banesto in 1998 and remained with Eusebio Unzue until 2005 before signing for Ag2r. After he left the Tour de France in disgrace due to his links to the Operacion Puerto, he joined Relax (2007), Fercase (2008), Rock Racing (2009) and Heraklion (2010) before he made the jump to the USA, riding for RealCyclist (2011), CompetitiveCyclist (2012) and 5-Hour Energy (2013). From 2014, he has been riding for SkyDive.

The Dubai team keeps the Adil Jelloul, Soufiane Haddi, Rafaa Chtioui and Meher Hasnaoui on board, but have lost the services of Alexander Pliuschin (Synergy Baku Cycling Project), Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Jamis) and Oscar Pujol who is expected to continue his career in Japan. The team is likely to be strengthened with a pair of riders with experience from the European peloton.

The 2015 calendar seems to be more ambitious, with the Tour of Egypt in preparation for the triptych in Dubai, Qatar and Oman. The team will continue their racing in Taiwan, Thailand and Kumano. Furthermore, they will do stage races in Abu Dhabi, Indonesia and China. The goal is to do better than this year where they have so far managed 13 wins but may improve on the record in the Jelajah Malaysia which starts on December 13 and where Mancebo will be the team captain.