Dubai: The Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling team have set lofty goals of breaking onto the global stage within the next five to 10 years.
Established in 2014, and led by the UAE’s Mohammad Al Murawwi, the team of 16 for the new season was announced at the Skydive Dubai site at the edge of The Palm Jumeirah in the presence of Saeed Hareb, Chairman, Organising Committee of Dubai Tour; Mohammad Yousuf, Executive Director, Skydive Dubai, and Mansour Juma Bousaiba, General Manager, Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling.
Half of the team consists of UAE cyclists along with a couple of riders from Morocco and Tunisia and one each from Italy, Portugal, Russia and Spain.
“The main aim for establishing this team was to develop cycling in the UAE, and part of our job is to develop local riders. In a few years we want to be in some of the top tours in Europe and, eventually, compete at the world level in the next five to ten years,” Ricardo Rodrigues Martins, Team Manager, Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling, told media.
“This team has a vision for the future and much of it is based on a combination of local riders learning from their European teammates and the rest of the top riders who attend races on a regular basis. When we started there was certainly a huge cultural difference, but at the same time the UAE riders showed a huge connection,” he added.
Cyclists from the Skydive Dubai Pro team shot into the limelight last year with a couple of its riders staging breakaways in two of the four stages of the inaugural edition. “This year too, we are looking to improve on our performances with our mix of specialists,” Bousaiba said.
“We have a good blend of experience and youth and we will be hoping that, besides a good start, we can come up with a few surprises due to the local knowledge of our riders,” he added.
A total of 16 teams, consisting of a total of 128 riders, will take off from the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) five minutes before noon on Wednesday. Of these 12 teams are UCI pro teams, two are UCI continental teams along with the UAE national team and the Skydive Dubai team.
