The UAE national team may be missing their top cyclist and regular captain, but the man replacing him is still confident they can make an impact at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour, which starts on Thursday.
“We have 13 members in the national team squad, but some have other commitments,” new captain Ahmed Al Mansouri, 25, said. “Our No 1 player Yousif Mirza will be in Thailand for the latest round of the UCI Asia Tour, and a few others will be at the World Military Cycling Championship in Korea.
“We still have Majid Al Baloushi, Jaber Al Mansouri, Mohammed Al Mansouri and others taking part in the Abu Dhabi Tour, and hopefully we can deliver.”
The 555-kilometre Abu Dhabi Tour is made up of four stages: the 175km Liwa Stage is in the Rub al Khali desert in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region; the Capital Stage (130km) is across the city’s roads; the tough Al Ain Stage (140km) includes the Jebel Hafeet climb; and finally 20 laps at the Yas Stage (110km).
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“There have been some races on the Liwa road before, but unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to be there,” Ahmed Al Mansouri said. “I have experienced the Jebel Hafeet climb, but Yas and Liwa I haven’t. The real difficulties stages will be Liwa and Jebel Hafeet.”
Like Mirza, Al Mansouri was part of the UAE team that finished seventh in the Team Pursuit racing at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
He also took part in the first edition of the Dubai Tour, the first time a professional Tour event had taken place in the country.
“I think the Abu Dhabi Tour will be more difficult as Dubai’s roads were mostly flat,” said Ahmed Al Mansouri, who races for Al Nasr Club in Dubai.
“Only one part wasn’t, and even that was not really a major climb. It’s a flat tour. If it had a lot more climbs, maybe not as many cyclists would have taken part in it because uphill riding would not be their specialty.”
Having two major tours in the UAE is a reflection of the sport’s emergence in the country, according to Ahmed Al Mansouri.
“Cycling’s popularity has spread in a major way especially after our leaderships got behind the sport,” he said.
“Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Mansour bin Zayed, Saif bin Zayed, Mohammed bin Rashid, Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid all endorsed cycling and that has helped spread the sport in the country and the numbers of participant has spiked.
“This has raised the technical standards especially for the UAE National Team and hopefully we can take this to international level,” Ahmed Al Mansouri added.
Mirza is the only Emirati cyclist to have so far qualified for next summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which can be achieved through hitting 100 points on the Asia Tour or finishing in the top two in the Asian Cycling Championships in 2015 and 2016 (Japan).
Mirza won silver in Thailand in February, and Ahmed Al Mansouri is hoping to emulate his teammate by making the road race competition.
“That’s what I’m aiming for, even if I get just a few points in Abu Dhabi, and then more in the Sharjah Tour and in Qatar,” he said.
“If I get some points maybe I can reach the Olympics. Otherwise I hope to achieve some big results in the Asian Cycling Championship in Japan.”
Ahmed Al Mansouri may yet, in a roundabout way, end up benefiting from Al Nasr clubmate Mirza’s recent successes.
“If Yousef and the other qualifier from last year finish in the top two again, then the qualifying spots will go to those finishing third and fourth,” Ahmed Al Mansouri said.
ABU DHABI TOUR SCHEDULE
Stage 1, Thursday Race begins at Qasr Al Sarab at 1pm, due to finish at Madinat Zayed at 4.50pm
Stage 2, Friday Begins at Yas Circuit at 1.55pm, due to finish at Yas Mall at 4.55pm
Stage 3, Saturday Begins in Al Ain at 1.30pm, due to finish at Jebel Hafeet at 4.50pm
Stage 4, Sunday Begins and finishes at Yas Circuit, from 1.30pm to 4.50pm
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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
SQUADS
UAE
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice-captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Nepal
Paras Khadka (captain), Gyanendra Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Avinash Bohara, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Rohit Paudel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi, Basant Regmi, Pawan Sarraf, Bhim Sharki, Aarif Sheikh
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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THE SPECS
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Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
