Dubai: He can be perhaps considered to be among the pioneers of cycling in the UAE. Moving shop from his native Germany along the Shaikh Zayed Road way back in 2002, Wolfgang Hohmann knew he was taking a huge risk.
However, 15 years down the line and the German is “more than happy” with the progress made by cycling as a leisure sport in the UAE.
“When we came here in 2002, there was a small shop from Saudi Arabia selling bikes. We tried to create a different scene and cycling has been growing since then,” Hohmann, General Manager, Wolfi’s Dubai, told Gulf News.
“I believed in cycling as a leisure sport. I believed it had its potential as a sport here as not many people were as aware of cycling as they are now. And luckily everything worked,” he added.
Over the past few years, not only has cycling taken a huge step forward, but Dubai has been joined by Abu Dhabi in hosting a tour each on the UCI calendar.
“We want to grow this further. We still have the other GCC countries to cater to. We can make cycling strong in the whole of the region. We keep on engaging with our customers all the time and this is where the leisure side of cycling has witnessed growth as getting fit and losing weight are among the side effects of our sport,” Hohmann said.
With practically no one else catering to cycling then, it was a tough call for the German. But he has never regretted his decision. “Business and sport and so closely linked. One doesn’t go without the other. We needed the business just to survive and it was difficult at the start. But now all that hard work has paid off and there are a massive number of people who are into cycling,” Hohmann said.
“It was tough to make a living out of selling bicycles, but now things are much better. We are on the right track,” he added.
