The team of the Sheikh of Manchester City sweeps the heel

The UAE dominates at the beginning of the season thanks to the triumphs of Pogacar and a budget of more than 30 million

• Ivn Curtain.
  

  “I want to win the Pars-Roubaix, I put the pressure on myself”
  

Not a whim of sheikh, nor an exotic experience. The royal family of Abu Dhabi I invested in professional cycling after calculating the advertising impact of a sport that years ago abandoned the field of old Europe to start a global expansion. In just three seasons, the UAE Team has become a leading training at a competitive and economic level. This campaign has started overwhelmingly with the successes of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (winner this Sunday of the general of the Tour of the Valencian Community and two stages), of the Colombian Fernando Gaviria (three stages in the Tour of San Juan) and Portuguese Rui Costa (Tour of Saudi Arabia).

In 2017, Emirates began to defray the team with a investment of about seven million euros. That amount served to prevent the disappearance of the historic Italian Lampre. The Arabs assumed the structure of the squad that they then managed Giuseppe Saronni Y Mauro Gianetti . In just three years, the entity's budget has almost multiplied by five. Now it exceeds 30 million, it is the second group in Word Tour rnking, only surpassed by the 40 of the Ineos of Chris Froome, and almost doubles the Movistar game.

Behind this success is Mansour bin Zayed, member of the ruling royal family in Abu Dhabi. The sheikh understood that cycling could be an excellent escape to sell the virtues of a country constituted by a federation of seven emirates and that seeks in tourism a new source of income added to those generated by oil and natural gas. Sport is the preferred means by Abu Dhabi to sell its virtues. Mansour bin Zayed is the owner, among other football clubs, of Manchester City from the Premier, New York City of the United States, Melbourne City, Yokohama Marinos de Japn, Girona, the Atlantic Torque of Uruguay and the Sichuan Jiuniu of China. He also invests in athletics, tennis, golf and horse racing.

Mansour bin Zayed controls the UAE team through Kill Suhail Al Yabhouni Al Dhaheri, He serves as president of the sports group. Its main sponsor is Fly Emirates, which also sponsors Real Madrid.

In the hands of Matxin

The UAE team was presented on January 4, 2017 and a few days later, on the 27th of that same month, it already achieved its first victory, thanks to Rui Costa on the queen day of the Tour of San Juan. Since then, its runners have been habitual in the podiums of the main races of the international calendar, with exhibitions of Pogacar in stages of the Tour of Spain, of the Irish Daniel Martin or from Norwegian Alexandr Kristoff in the Tour de France or Gaviria in the Tour of Italy.

This season has 30 runners and its goal is to overcome the 27 victories harvested in 2019. In front of the technical direction of the group is the Spanish Jotxean Fernndez Matxin, discoverer of Pogacar, the new phenomenon, who at 21 years old and in his third season as a professional already presents an excellent palmars, with victories in the Tour of Spain (third and three stages in 2019), Tour of the Algarve, Tour of California or Tour of the Future. On Sunday the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valencia was awarded, where I super Alejandro Valverde in a hand in hand in the first high end of the round.

Slovenian is the standard of a team that this course has been reinforced with Spanish David de la Cruz (from Ineos), the Argentine Maximiliano Richeze (Quick Step) and the American climber Joe Dombrowski (Bora) They remain in their ranks Fabio Aru, Davide Formolo, Diego Ulissi, Sergio Heano, Costa and Kristoff.

And is that the United Arab Emirates has decided to turn to cycling, and not only with the professional team, but also with the celebration of the UAE Tour, a stage race of a week released last year and that is part of the UCI Word Tour calendar. The test was born after the merger of the missing Tour of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Its organization is in charge of the Sports Council of both emirates and the company RCS Sport, owner of the Giro d'Italia. Last year was won by Primoz Roglic and this edition (February 23-29) have the main claim of the return of Chris Froome, inactive since each suffered last spring. The power of dirham.