In-form sprinter Elia Viviani is set to lead Quick-Step Floors at the forthcoming Dubai Tour which will run from 6-10 February.
Three overall wins, three secondary classifications and seven stage victories have made the Dubai Tour a happy hunting ground for the team since the inception of the Middle East race, which this year celebrates its fifth edition.
The first two days are expected to provide an opportunity for the sprinters and on paper, also stage three could end up in a bunch gallop, but it will all depend on what will happen on an unclassified climb topping 47 kilometres from the finish, whose gradients range from 2.3% to 7.2%.
A stern test will come on the penultimate day, when the peloton will travel to the now traditional uphill finish of Hatta Dam (17% maximum gradient), before a return to the centre of Dubai, on Saturday, for another stage suited to the sprinters.
Viviani – the first Quick-Step Floors rider to grab a win this season – will be joined at the start by Maximilian Schachmann which will be his first outing for the team since crashing out of the Tour de Pologne last year and injuring his foot. Also making the squad for the Dubai Tour will be Tim Declercq, neo-pro Fabio Jakobsen, Yves Lampaert, Fabio Sabatini and Niki Terpstra.
“We like a lot the Dubai Tour,” said Directeur Sportif Brian Holm. “Not only it’s a very well-organised race, with good weather, but there’s also the fact that we came out on top of the GC in the last three years and enjoyed many beautiful wins.”
“This time we are arriving here with Elia Viviani as our leader, and I must say that I’m super excited to work with him. He took a stage victory in Australia, at the Tour Down Under, and our goal will be to repeat that result in Dubai”, “I am also thrilled about the return of Max Schachmann after that long injury lay-off and the debut of Fabio Jakobsen; he’s young but talented, and it will be exciting to see him race for the first time with the big boys.”
