This is my first season with UAE Team Emirates and my first season on the World Tour stage. It’s been a smooth transition so far, even with the four-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, but we are finally back riding and I can’t wait to get started again in August!
Our team manager, Matxin Fernandez, was a big reason why I joined the team. He said that I was one of the hottest prospects in the world when it comes to the time trials, which for me, was a huge compliment from a man that I respect a lot. It gives me a lot of confidence and motivates me to perform well for the team.
At just 21, I am one of the youngest in the team, but we have a great mix of experience and have a very professional and strong squad that can compete in every race. It motivates me to be surrounded by guys who I look up to and who share the same winning mentality I have. We really do believe we can go into any race and win which creates a fantastic atmosphere.
I won the 2018 and 2019 UCI Road World Under-23 Championships in Innsbruck, Austria and Yorkshire, UK which were both unbelievable experiences. To win one was always a dream, to win two was amazing. It’s a big step to the World Tour stage but my wins in the Under-23 Championships have given me a great foundation to build on.
My biggest dream is to win the World Championships. I watched fellow Dane Mads Pedersen win the World Championships last year and it gave me goosebumps, I was speechless!
That would be a race, that if you retired the day after and looked back at your career, you would have still accomplished a lot more than a lot of the pros in the peloton who have been competing for 10 years.
For me personally, the time trial at the World Championships or maybe the Olympics Games are realistically the biggest accomplishments that I could achieve.
The Classics are also special for me. These are the races where I believe that one day, I could compete with the very best. I’ve still got a long way to go and there is a lot of work ahead, but I am very happy with my current situation and I’m in the best team for my development and my career.
UAE Team Emirates show great interest in the development of young riders and it is exciting to be part of a World Tour team characterised by a base of experienced riders and some of the best talents of this generation like Jasper Philipsen, Tadej Pogacar and Brandon McNulty. These are all really exciting young riders and I couldn't be part of a better team. The young riders all work together and are always motivating one another to be better.
As this is my first year on the World Tour stage and my first year with UAE Team Emirates, my goal for the season is to learn and continue to improve in both the road races and in the time trials. I started the season this year at the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia, which now feels a long time ago!
I was able to ride with my good friend and teammate, Jasper Philipsen, in Australia which was great. We rode together two years ago with a different team and now we are teammates again. It’s not always easy joining a new team but having friends here already has made it extremely easy to settle in well.
Strangely enough, Australia was my first and last race in 2020, so I am very excited to get back on the bike and start competing again. This has not been your usual season! That’s why I can’t wait to get back racing with the team as I am missing it a lot. Especially being on the road with the boys, pinning on my number and working with the staff - I miss the adrenaline!
I’ve been working harder than ever in training during lockdown and have watched a lot of bike races on my laptop, studying them. I am super motivated and want to do the UAE proud on our return!
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
PAKISTAN SQUAD
Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (test captain), Babar Azam (T20 captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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match info
Athletic Bilbao 1 (Muniain 37')
Atletico Madrid 1 (Costa 39')
Man of the match Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao)
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Six things you need to know about UAE Women’s Special Olympics football team
Several girls started playing football at age four
They describe sport as their passion
The girls don’t dwell on their condition
They just say they may need to work a little harder than others
When not in training, they play football with their brothers and sisters
The girls want to inspire others to join the UAE Special Olympics teams
