Abu Dhabi: Home fans will be pinning their hopes on Norwegian ace Alexander Kristoff — the biggest signing for UAE Team Emirates this season — in the Dubai Tour that gets under way tomorrow.
Kristoff, the reigning European Champion, ending his six-year long association with Katusha-Alpecin and joining force with new entrants UAE Team Emirates raised a few eyebrows as it was a huge step in his illustrious career.
It will be interesting to see what sort of an impact the change could bring in for Kristoff and UAE Team Emirates this season. But for now, the 30-year-old is focusing on gelling quickly with his new teammates and making the most out of the new setup before he lines-up for the spring Classics.
“It is kind of starting at home ground for the team so this season opener will be more important than usual for me. I have a good feeling at the start of the season and I think I will be fighting among the best,” said Kristoff after an interactive session with the students of the Gems American Academy in the capital, yesterday.
For his inaugural race, Kristoff will be teaming up with another new signing, the former U-23 World Road Race Champion Sven Erik Bystrøm. UAE’s home bread Yousif Mirza, Moroccan Anass Ait El Abdia and Italian trio Matteo Bono, Simone Consonni and Filippo Ganna complete the squad led by Sports Directors Marco Marzano and Joxean Fernandez Matxin.
It will be difficult but shape is good after the training camp in Sicily, Italy and looking forward to getting started,” said Kristoff, who won 64 races during his six seasons with Katusha-Alpecin, including Milan-San Remo in 2014 and the Tour of Flanders in 2015.
Kristoff revealed that switching to UAE Team Emirates when there were interest from Astana and other teams was not easy but he thoroughly evaluated the value his new team could bring in taking his career forward.
“Last year was the first year for the team and it looked good and were very professional. Everything looked nice and it was certain they wanted to build on that and they signed some good riders,” said Kristoff adding, “Already with me, Dan Martin, (Fabio) Aru for sure the team is looking stronger than last year. That’s the reason for me to change as they have good possibilities for me to race. I want to fight in the sprints and in the classics. They were backing me on this and that’s my goal to participate in these kind of races; the support was needed and that came with UAE.”
Kristoff was also of the view that one need not expect ‘miracles’ straight away as it will need time to build a team.
“It will need a bit of time to get used to riding together and this will be the first race. But during the season we will see more and more work being put together. We have strong riders; for example Filippo Ganna was third in Argentina so the future of the team has potential,” said Kristoff, who lost the World Championship battle to Slovakian ace Peter Sagan in a close dual last season. It’s been around five months since that set back in Bergen but it is still fresh in Kristoff’s mind.
“I only missed by a few centimetres. For sure, I’m not happy about it but there is nothing that I can do about it now. I try not to think too much about it and I still have the European jersey (All whites with a star) and that is also a nice one. I still can enjoy more than half the year with that nice looking jersey.”
