In many ways, Dubai and professional cycling seem an unnatural fit.
Take the scene near the start/finish line on Wednesday where the teams parked their vans and fussed over a collection of the world’s most finely chiselled athletes. The likes of Mark Cavendish, Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara warmed up and warmed down in full view of an Elevation Burger outlet, a McDonalds and a Burger Fuel.
While Taylor Phinney, the eventual winner, was clocking top speeds in excess of 60kph just around the corner, besuited businessmen tucked into 12-inch Hawaiians in Pizza Express in wondrous ignorance.
This might not have been the only show in town. It was not even the only show in the street, to be honest.
The majority of the crowd on the World Trade Centre concourse seemed more bothered by the stash they were receiving from their respective conferences than the elite professional sporting event happening right in front of them.
But, at the very least, there was some intrigue, which is a decent enough start for a sport that is trying to expand its footprint in this city.
“And they are professionals, you say?” one businessman asked another about the anonymous superstars whizzing by in a whir of skin-tight hypercolour. “Well, that is fascinating.”
For some, general intrigue translated as general confusion. The Dubai Tour is certainly making a mark on the city’s traffic flow.
Schools had been alerted to the fact that some roads will be closed this week, although which ones exactly will be shut is still open to speculation.
“The race commences at 1pm today, but we are unsure as to what time the roads will actually be closed,” one school wrote in a missive to parents about the “Dubai Road Race”.
For a sport still battling to be recognised as having a valid claim on roads in the city, it probably felt good to get one up on the motorists for once.
This was definitely a case of two wheels good, four wheels bad. The racers made light of the speed bumps that proliferated Wednesday’s layout, and yet many of the support cars that followed the competitors were forced to slow to a crawl. In particular, the Audis that followed the SkyDive Dubai team were virtually stopped at every speed bump, for fear of damaging the undercarriage.
Not that all the riders were totally enthused by their first day out in Dubai, having been ordered to use standard road bikes rather than those better suited to time trials.
“First stage of Dubai Tour today – 10km time trial on standard road bikes,” Cavendish tweeted before setting off as the 111th rider in a field of 127 competitors. “I might just take a detour through the Dubai Mall.”
Maybe he did. It is a nightmare finding your way back out of that place, and the “Manx Missile” did finish nearly a minute behind Phinney.
Cavendish led out a wave of riders that read like a Who’s Who of cycling’s elite.
After the British star followed Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Cancellara and Vincenzo Nibali, each of whom has greater plans at the grand tours later this year.
Next through the starting gate? Yousuf Mirza, the leading rider in the UAE’s national team. He was just happy to be in such gilded company.
“I didn’t feel any pressure,” Mirza said. “This is the first time we had competed at this level, so we wanted to measure the standard we are at.
“We must try, we must fight, and we have a responsibility to show the UAE have a team.
“It was hard for us, the first time that we are racing against professional teams, but we are very happy and proud with how we have done.
“The Dubai Tour will be a good chance for us to improve from amateur to professional cycling. It is all we want: to show the world we can cycle here in Dubai.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Thomas J. Brennan and Finbarr O’Reilly
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
TCL INFO
Teams:
Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
When December 14-17
THE SPECS
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 523hp
Torque: 750Nm
Price: Dh469,000
