Race report

There had been a lot of discussion before the event as to how this would progress. 180 riders of varying abilities and experience in a road race is a recipe for crashes. Many thought they’d been entering a ‘sportif’ type event, while others expected a road race. The anticipated solution was for two events to form on the road - one hell bent on winning the generous prize money, the other intent on getting to the finish line at Al Aqqah Beach resort 180 kilometres away.

For the first 10 kilometres or so, the race was neutralised, meaning that the large bunch rolled out together through the Dubai traffic, and then the flag went down. It soon became clear that anyone hoping for the ‘sportif’ option was in the wrong place. While the pace wasn’t super fast, attacks went repeatedly with riders trying to escape off the front of the peloton (bike speak for the main bunch). Inevitably, after about 50 kms, a small breakaway had a good lead off the front and soon built a lead of 4 mins over the main pack. The rest of us rolled on towards the climb over Wadi Helo, where the real fun would begin. As we began to hit the early slopes, the predicted headwind picked up. With the heat of the day kicking in, this made for tough conditions. Then we hit the main slope up to the tunnel. At this point the bunch began to spread out (since gravity slows you down, there’s hardly any ‘slipstream’ effect, so things tend to spread out with better climbers going forward). There was a good crowd of supporters near the summit handing up water and food, then there was the 80 km/h plummet down to Kalba on the east coast, about 10 kms away. From Kalba to the finish line is about 60 kms, and this seemed to go on forever. Thankfully, what is usually a 3/4 headwind was a 3/4 tailwind today, or many more would have abandoned. For the first 40 kms up the East Coast, the only thing to do was get into a small group and concentrate on getting a smooth rhythm going. This we managed to do once everyone had recovered from the climb, and we were soon keeping a good pace of 38 km/h going up the coast road. Into the last 20 kms from Khor Fakkan up to the Al Aqqah Beach Resort and things got a bit wild. Our group was joined by another small group from behind, riders were dropping out with cramp, and before we knew what had happened the group had split up again, with 4, then 3, then 2 riders out in front. And so to the finish line at Al Aqah Beach Resort. Results to follow as they’re released by the UAE Cycling Federation!