It would be a big surprise to see Chris Froome in the front places of his first race in eight months, the Tour of the Arab Emirates that begins this Sunday in Dubai. It is already an achievement for the four-time winner of the Tour de France to return to the squad after the tremendous clash against a wall when he recognized the long time trial circuit of the last Dauphiné, on June 12, 2019.

Most likely, it would be seen cut at the two Jebel Hafeet mountain arrivals , 10 kilometers at 5.8% , in the third and fifth stages. It will not matter in the least to arrive with great delay. It will be enough to reach the goal banner.

The open fracture of the femur of the right leg, the elbow on the same side and several broken ribs that at first prevented him from breathing and made him think that the fifth Tour de France fell off his wish list. But as soon as he woke up from one of the operations, four hours of the operating room , to which he underwent, he heard good news from doctors Giorgio Testa and Rémi Philippot. "You will be competitive again, champion," he was encouraged.

It is what remains to be seen: if Froome regains its form and its dominance in the Tour de France . His ability to overcome difficulties has rehabilitated him to the point of starting hard workouts, although he acknowledges that he still has a long way to go.

He is not the only incentive in his Ineos team, which starts debuting the Costa Rican Andrey Amador after his contract break with the Movistar Team for the brave, although he ended up arranging a good compensation to those of Unzué, an arrangement minutes before the conciliation period will be exhausted and a judge of the International Cycling Union would have to decide.

It is also the debut of the youth of Granada Carlos Rodríguez , 19 years old. Not only debuts in the Ineos, but also in the professional category. And with a lot of heavy weights on our side, because this race has a very high participation.

Great list of sprinters

The Emirates race consists of seven stages (1,122 km in total) . Four of them (Sunday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) should end the sprint. There are many of the best sprinters in the world with their best pitchers: Akermann, Bennet, Démate, Ewan, Gaviria or Cavendish .

Monday's stage has a slide route and the arrival at Hatta Dam, a very steep rampon , but 200 meters in which the sprinters can also shine, although without packaging. On this arrival, since it has been done on the Dubai Tour and now on the Emirati lap, sprinters have won: Kittel, Degenkolb, Lobato and Colbrelli.

The two high arrivals are in the same place, Jebel Hafeet. Emirati orography does not give much more if you want to avoid, as is the case, uncomfortable transfers of the caravan. There they have won Chaves, Kangert and twice Alejandro Valverde (against Miguel Ángel López and Roglic, the last two years).

Valverde will be back in the ointment with the idea of ​​opening his locker 2020, as in 2019. But the rivals are very strong: Pogaçar returns after his exhibition in Valencia with a very powerful team; Adam Yates, Poels, Gaudu, Zakarin, Kelderman, Ciccone, Pozzovivo, Buchmann, Majka ...

The Spaniards in Liza are Rodríguez (Ineos), Jesús and José Herrada (Cofidis), Fraile and Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Valls (Bahrain), De la Parte y Ventoso (CCC), Dani Navarro (Israel) and six the Movistar: Valverde, Rojas, Carretero, Torres, Elosegui and Samitier .

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