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Not a whim of sheikh, nor an exotic experience. The royal family of Abu Dhabi invested in professional cycling after calculating the advertising impact of a sport that years ago abandoned the scope of old Europe to start a global expansion. In just three seasons, the UAE Team has become a leading training at a competitive and economic level. This campaign has started overwhelmingly with the successes of the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (winner this Sunday of the general of the Tour of the Valencian Community and two stages), the Colombian Fernando Gaviria (three stages in the Tour of San Juan) and the Portuguese Rui Costa (Saudi Arabia Tour).

In 2017, Emirates began to defray the equipment with an investment of about seven million euros . That amount served to prevent the disappearance of the historic Italian Lampre. The Arabs assumed the structure of the squad then managed by Giuseppe Saronni and Mauro Gianetti . In just three years, the entity's budget has almost multiplied by five. Now it exceeds 30 million, it is the second group in the Word Tour ranking , only surpassed by the 40 of the Ineos of Chris Froome , and almost doubles the Movistar game.

Behind this success is Mansour bin Zayed , a member of the ruling royal family in Abu Dhabi. The sheikh understood that cycling could be an excellent escape to sell the virtues of a country constituted by a federation of seven emirates and that seeks in tourism a new source of income added to those generated by oil and natural gas. Sport is the preferred means by Abu Dhabi to sell its virtues. Mansour bin Zayed is the owner, among other football clubs, of Manchester City of the Premier, of New York City of the United States, of Melbourne City, of Yokohama Marinos of Japan, of Girona, of Atlético Torque of Uruguay and of Sichuan Jiuniu from China. He also invests in athletics, tennis, golf and horse racing.

Mansour bin Zayed controls the UAE team through Matar Suhail Al Yabhouni Al Dhaheri, who serves as president of the sports group. Its main sponsor is Fly Emirates, which also sponsors Real Madrid.

In the hands of Matxin

The UAE team was presented on January 4, 2017 and a few days later, on the 27th of that same month, it already achieved its first victory, thanks to Rui Costa on the queen day of the Tour of San Juan. Since then, its runners have been habitual in the podiums of the main races of the international calendar, with exhibitions of Pogacar in stages of the Tour of Spain, the Irish Daniel Martin or the Norwegian Alexandr Kristoff in the Tour de France or Gaviria in the Italy spin.

This season has 30 runners and its goal is to overcome the 27 victories harvested in 2019. The Spanish manager Jotxean Fernández Matxin , discoverer of Pogacar, the new phenomenon, who at 21 years old and in his The third season as a professional already presents an excellent record, with victories in the Tour of Spain (third and three stages in 2019), Tour of the Algarve, Tour of California or Tour del Porvenir. On Sunday, the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valencia was awarded, where he beat Alejandro Valverde in a hand-in-hand in the first final high of the round.

Slovenian is the standard of a team that this course has been reinforced with the Spanish David de la Cruz (from Ineos), the Argentine Maximiliano Richeze (Quick Step) and the American climber Joe Dombrowski (Bora). Fabio Aru , Davide Formolo , Diego Ulissi , Sergio Heano , Costa and Kristoff remain in their ranks.

And is that the United Arab Emirates has decided to turn to cycling, and not only with the professional team, but also with the celebration of the UAE Tour, a race for stages of a week released last year and that is part of the UCI Word Tour calendar . The test was born after the merger of the missing Tour of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Its organization is in charge of the Sports Council of both emirates and the company RCS Sport , owner of the Giro d'Italia. Last year it was won by Primoz Roglic and this edition (February 23-29) will feature the main claim of the return of Chris Froome , inactive since the fall suffered last spring. The power of dirham.

The data

  • 10 sponsors . The main budget item exceeding 30 million euros comes from the United Arab Emirates and Fly Emirates. The second level sponsors are eight. The suppliers are 15.
  • 7 wins . Those added since January at the beginning of this season. The victories harvested in the past year were 27.
  • 13 nationalities The majority of the team is made up of Italians (8) and Colombians (5). There is only one Spanish and one from the Emirates.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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