Cycling: UAE Team Emirates content with strong start

Dubai: UAE Team Emirates are content with their strong finishes in the last two races as they eye their next challenge at the Circuito de Getxo in Spain.

Last week was a strong showing for the UAE Team Emirates that included a stage win for Fernando Gaviria at the Vuelta a Burgos and a podium finish for Davide Formolo at the Strade Bianche late on Saturday.

The Belgian Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo — Visma) won the 14th edition of Strade Bianche — the first of the UCI World Tour races on the restarted 2020 UCI calendar.

Covering a distance of 184km from Siena to Piazza del Campo, it was Van Aert coming in first, ahead of UAE Team Emirates’ Formolo and Maximilian Schachmann of BORA-Hansgrohe in third.

Belgian Van Aert took the win after a solo attack with 12km to go. Formolo chased hard along with third-placed Schachmann of Bora-Hansgrohe, even though the gap was never closed.

UAE Team Emirates’ Italian rider Formolo, who claimed one of the biggest results of his career with a gutsy ride while finishing in second on the dusty roads of Italy, was thrilled with the podium spot.

“It has been a beautiful race. I really suffered with the heat, and also because we have trained for a month in altitude. It’s always great to race at Strade Bianche, there a little bit of regret for having missed a beautiful victory, but the second place is a good result anyway and tops off a good week for the team,” Formolo said.

“Now I’ll look towards Milan-San Remo which is a different style of parcours but we’ll give it our best,” the Italian rider promised.

In the women’s race, Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten of the Mitchelton-Scott team won the sixth edition, ahead of Margarita Garcia Canellas of Ale BTC Ljubljana team and Leah Thomas of the Equipe Paule Ka team.

Meanwhile, there was further good news for UAE Team Emirates at the Vuelta Burgos with David De La Cruz and Fabio Aru cementing their places in the top 10 in the general classification with a strong show on the final day.

The fifth and final stage from Covarrubias to Lagunas de Neila was won by Ivan Sosa of the Ineos team, while Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) claimed the overall title. But doing well with a strong finish was the UAE Team Emirates duo of De La Cruz and Aru after ending in eighth and ninth in the general classification.

UAE Team Emirates are next scheduled to race in the Basque region of Spain while participating in the Circuito de Getxo on Sunday evening.

Result

Strade Bianche
1. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
2. Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates)
3. Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe)