uae bike tour 2023

UAE Tour 2023: The Route

Stage 1 is played out on a flat route. The race starts near Al Dhafra Castle and finishes in Al Mirfa. The route is similar to the opener of two years ago, when Van der Poel took the spoils after a race with full on echelon action.

The 2nd stage is a 17.1 kilometres team time trial with start and finish in Khalifa Port. Flat and straight roads with a U-turn about halfway.

The first of two mountain top finishes happens on Wednesday. Stage 3 finishes on Jebel Jais, a climb of 21.1 kilometres long with an average gradient of 5.4%.

The 4th stage sets off from Al Shindagha, a neigbourhood in the city of Dubai. The route only leaves the metropolitan area for an outing to the Al Qudra Cycle Track before a finish in Dubai Harbour.

Stage 5 is likely to see another sprint finish. The race goes from Al Marjan Island to Umm-Al-Quwain, an unprecedented finishing venue.

The last chance for the fast men appears on stage 6 . The race goes to the well-known finish at Abu Dhabi Breakwater. Cavendish, Ewan and Gaviria – they all won here in the UAE Tour.

The 7th stage will be the decisive final test. The finale takes place on Jebel Hafeet, a 10.8 kilometres ascent at 6.6%. The section at the heart of the climb is where the GC action is likely to take place, as this rises at 8% to 9% for almost 4 kilometres. Pogacar emerged victorious on Jebel Hafeet on the last three occasions.

UAE Tour 2023: routes & climb profiles

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UAE Tour Route, Stages and Results 2023

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Race information

• Date: 26 February 2023
• Start time: 12:45 (09:45 CET)
• Avg. speed winner: 43.777 km/h
• Classification: 2.UWT
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 153 km
• Points scale: 2.WT.Stage
• UCI scale: UCI.WR.C3.Stage
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• ProfileScore: 144
• Vertical meters: 1378
• Departure: Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium
• Arrival: Jebel Hafeet
• Race ranking: 35
• Startlist quality score: 530
• Won how: 3 km solo
• Avg. temperature:

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• Stages Stage 1 02-08 Dubai Stage 122 km Stage 2 02-09 Modon Stage 113 km Stage 3 02-10 Presight Stage 128 km Stage 4 02-11 Aldar Stage 105 km
• The UAE Tour Ed. 2023

THE RAINBOW SHINES OVER THE UAE TOUR WOMEN

قوس قزح يسطع في سماء طواف الإمارات للسيدات.

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LOTTE KOPECKY WINS THE UAE TOUR WOMEN 2024. AMBER KRAAK WINS THE FINAL STAGE IN ABU DHABI

Good morning from stage 4 of the uae tour women, kopecky flies high.

Jersey Wearers

Strive for glory

السعي للمجد, general time, lotte kopecky, team sd worx, 11h 16' 51'', general points, lorena wiebes, neve bradbury, canyon//sram racing, 11h 17' 04'', intermediate sprint, discover the route, اكتشف المسار, dubai stage.

From Dubai Miracle Garden

To Dubai Harbour

Modon Stage

From Al Mirfa (Bab Al Nojoum)

To Madinat Zayed

Presight Stage

From Al Ain Police Museum

To Jebel Hafeet

Aldar Stage

From Louvre Abu Dhabi

To Abu Dhabi Breakwater

Don’t lose a moment

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لا تضيع لحظة

برنامج السباق, photo gallery, video gallery, معرض مقاطع الفيديو.

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2023 UCI cycling calendar | 2023 UAE Tour

2023 uae tour.

Took place from Monday 20 February 2023 till Sunday 26 February 2023 .

In the UCI calendar ...

• takes place in United Arab Emirates
• is part of the UCI WorldTour 2023
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TV Guide - Where and When to watch UAE Tour 2023

For several years now the UAE Tour has proven to be one of the biggest early-season tests for the peloton. A World Tour race, it will be taking place from the 20th to the 26th of February and as every year it will feature a star-studded field of climbers and sprinters.

You will be able to follow the race within the traditional channels, online via the GCN+, Discovery+ and Eurosport Player subscriptions.

PREVIEW | UAE Tour 2023 - Evenepoel vs UAE, 4 bunch sprints await fast men

As for the schedule for the stages, they end earlier than the normal time for European and American viewers. Taking place in the UAE, the time zone is 3 hours ahead of CET time.

Estimated start and finish times for UAE Tour, CET time:

Stage 1: 10.00 - 13:00CET

Stage 2: 08:00 - 12:30CET

Stage 3: 08:45 - 13:30CET

Stage 4: 09:30 - 13:30CET

Stage 5: 09:35 - 13:30CET

Stage 6: 09:40 - 13:30CET

Stage 7: 09:45 - 13:30CET

Profiles & Route UAE Tour 2023 - Stage Analysis

Final startlist uae tour with cavendish, evenepoel, vine, bennett, démare, ewan and adam yates, read more about:, place comments.

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Tour de France 2023: Bike Computers and Power Meters

The Tour de France kicked off again today, this time in Bilbao, Spain, with 176 riders and 22 teams. And thus begins the annual tradition to ferret out not just the sports tech gear these teams are sponsored to use, but the gear they’re actually using. And there’s some interesting tidbits this year!

First up, best I can tell this is the first year that SRM is not sponsoring a TdF team. Obviously, as always, sponsorship doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but in the case of SRM specifically, I think this marks the end of an era. While one unsponsored power meter team did have a handful of SRM units on-hand, they also had a collection of single and dual-sided Stages units.

Meanwhile, on the bike computer front, we see more of the same from last year. There aren’t any major shifts, with the camp split roughly evenly between Garmin and Wahoo sponsorship fronts, along with Hammerhead and Bryton each sponsoring a team. Giant/Stages has left that scene from the one sponsorship last year. Still, it was notable to see how many teams had the just-released Garmin Edge 840 units on-bike. Typically teams don’t tend to put brand new tech on bikes this quickly, but they were today. In fact, I even saw Team Jayco carrying around a Garmin Edge 840 box to the starting area, with less than 30 minutes to the start of the stage. Unclear what the final destination of that was, but, I found it notable.

I’ll be adding the full galleries of everything here this evening, but you can find all the same goodness up above in the video, and of course the details down below. First up, the power meters:

UCI WorldTour Teams: AG2R Citroën Team: Power2Max Alpecin–Deceuninck: Shimano R9200P Arkéa–Samsic: Shimano R9200P Astana Qazaqstan Team: Shimano R9200P Bora–Hansgrohe: Shimano R9200P Cofidis: SRM & Stages EF Education–EasyPost: Power2Max Groupama–FDJ: Shimano R9200P Ineos Grenadiers: Shimano R9200P Intermarché–Circus–Wanty: ROTOR Inspider Lidl–Trek: SRAM Quarq/AXS Movistar Team: SRAM Quarq/AXS Soudal–Quick-Step: Shimano R9200P Team Bahrain Victorious: Shimano R9200P Team DSM–Firmenich: Shimano R9200P Team Jayco–Alula: Shimano R9200P Team Jumbo–Visma: SRAM Quarq/AXS UAE Team Emirates: Shimano R9200P UCI ProTeams: Israel–Premier Tech: FSA PowerBox (P2M) Lotto–Dstny : 4iiii & Shimano R9200P Team TotalEnergies: Shimano R9200P Uno-X Pro Cycling Team: Shimano R9100P

For those trying to keep score at home, here’s how things landed:

Shimano Teams: 14 (10 sponsored + 4 free-styling) SRAM Teams: 3 (All sponsored) Power2Max Teams: 3 (All sponsored, including via FSA) 4iiii Teams: 1 (Sponsored) ROTOR Teams: 1 (Sponsored) SRM Teams: 1 (Unsponsored portion of team) Stages Teams: 1 (Unsponsored portion of team)

Next up, we’ve got the bike computer front, where things are a bit messier. Actually, they’re both cleaner and messier. As a rule, all Wahoo teams can use either the BOLT V2 or ROAM V2, per rider preference. Thus, for all the teams I saw, it was a mishmash of the Wahoo units within the team – perhaps just barely favoring the BOLT V2.

Meanwhile, on the Garmin side, it’s basically the same story. The Garmin sponsored teams have access to whatever units they want, and in most cases that means riders choose what they want. It tended to be a blend of Garmin Edge 1040, Edge 840, and Edge 830. In non-sponsored teams (like Team Bahrain), you saw some flyers, such as the Garmin Edge 130.  Undoubtedly, because bike computers are usually held by the rider till the last minute (inside the team busses), it’s hard to capture all 176 riders within the very short handful of minutes they ride by. Thus, it’s plausible some Garmin-sponsored rider is also doing something quirky too.

In any case, here we are:

UCI WorldTour Teams: AG2R Citroën Team: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Alpecin–Deceuninck: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Arkéa–Samsic: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Astana Qazaqstan Team: Garmin Edge 840/1040 Bora–Hansgrohe: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Cofidis: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 EF Education–EasyPost: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Groupama–FDJ: Garmin Edge 830 Ineos Grenadiers: Garmin Edge 840/1040 Intermarché–Circus–Wanty: Bryton GPS Lidl–Trek: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Movistar Team: Garmin Edge 840/1040 Soudal–Quick-Step: Garmin Edge 830 Team Bahrain Victorious: Garmin Variety Box (Edge 130, 1040, 830) Team DSM–Firmenich: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 Team Jayco–Alula: Garmin Edge 530/1040 Team Jumbo–Visma : Garmin Edge 830/840 UAE Team Emirates: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2 UCI ProTeams: Israel–Premier Tech: Hammerhead Karoo 2 Lotto–Dstny: Garmin Edge Series Team TotalEnergies: Garmin Edge 830/840/1040 Uno-X Pro Cycling Team: Garmin Edge Series

And like above, here’s where things landed in the totals department:

Garmin Teams : 11 (9 sponsored + 2 free-styling: UAE/Bahrain) Wahoo Teams: 9 (All sponsored) Hammerhead Teams: 1 (Sponsored) Bryton Teams: 1 (Sponsored)

For the Bryton units, I’ll have to get specific models tomorrow at that start. All the Bryton units had special (colorful) covers on them, making it near impossible to get specific exact models because some of the models are virtually identical without seeing the model number. Generally speaking, finding the right person at the team area that actually knows what bike GPS models are is near impossible. There is *someone* that does know that, but historically speaking, finding that exact someone is a literal needle in a haystack. And usually the riders are inside.

In any case, stay tuned for more digging into sports tech from the start of tomorrow’s stage. Or, check out the video above where I see which GoPros the teams and organizers are putting on riders, as well as plenty of other sports tech (and non-tech) tidbits!

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29 Comments

First time for you in the Basque Country?

Make sure you enjoy the land.

I think so – super pretty area!

Sad to see no Polar… Even Bryton produces bike computers…

Yeah, I suspect the cost structures of Polar vs Bryton are vastly different…

Many ppl using Polar would kill for new cycling computers with navi. Even sigma produces rox with mapping

Polar totally lost that market. So sad. I doubt that we see any new bike computers by Polar.

I use my Vantage V2 as a bike computer (mounted in the handlebar). When I need routing I use a Wahoo Blot (maybe a Roam2 in the future)

I bet the riders with Edge 840s were thrilled to get the Climb Pro fanfare every time they reached the top of a climb!

That’d be amazing to be at the top of a Climb and record the audio.

Even more if they were getting it a couple of minutes after they reached the top, considering the bugs still present in ClimbPro

My understanding of the multi-minute offset though is that’s from Strava Routes (and maybe some Komoot routes), where they’re sending over the elevation wonky.

Curious that so many teams are rolling with Shimano power meters. Aren’t they notoriously terrible? I’ve seen both you and GPlama tear them apart.

Also, why no pedal power meters?

Yeah – I was wondering this.

Shimano sponsors the team so they use Shimano power meters. I think Ray said during training they may use other power meters. They also probably have a decent idea where the Shimano PMs are deficient and know how to account for it.

Sadly, there’s not much you can do to account for it – mainly because it’s specific to gearing combinations and pedaling style. So, unless you know which gear the rider was in (e.g. which front chainring), it’s incredibly difficult to backwards compute.

Is it likely or possible that shimano teams use a left side PM (eg stages or 4iiii) within the DA crank arm, but without any logos? Then just ignore the notorious shimano one?

Bought a Garmin 840 when it came out, to have one run/bike ecosystem, after owning both iterations of the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt. And as much as I like the unit: Man, it makes a lot of noise! The Climb Pro summit fanfare made me turn off all sound…

Somone please record some sound, when the peloton crosses a summit!

Totally agree on the noise of a Garmin head unit. I have an edge 530 and I turned off the sound years ago, the thing just does not shut up!

dcr, are Israël already riding with a Karoo 3?

They’re riding the Karoo 2.

Given the inaccurate Shimano power meter, do you think those teams use a different PM for training and just ride with these on the bikes in public races?

Yup, they definitely do. Not all of them, and not all riders. But some of them do indeed.

Hero Session 5 for the win! GoPro missed the mark with the “mini”

Ray do you think that these have been supplied/refurbished by GoPro, found in an old storage locker or have just been looked after to stay alive?

I’ll ask around, but I suspect these are largely the same cameras that are carefully looked after, or occasionally re-sourced. I know the GoPro people still know that crew, but I can’t imagine GoPro has many of those cameras lying around.

Noticed the same aspect that has already been raised by others: many of them are using the Shimano Power Meters, which are known (here) to be very unreliable.

Are they managing to add some additiona source of PM reading, or are they simply ignoring it (or doing the best that they can with those unreliable units), as far as you know?

Thanks for this post. It must have been exciting to be in the middle of all that! Looking a the photo you have of cav, my first question was “what watch is he wearing?”

Wonder if Wood’s actually used the climb feature on the Karoo 2 to win Stage 9 up the Puy de Dôme? Now that would be a great piece of marketing for Hammerhead.

Interesting to hear Victor Campaernants from Lotto Destiny saying that his power meter doesn’t work because of the heat. I’m wondering if it’s the 4iii or Shimano one…

Do you know what camera they use for on bike footage during the race.? Those mounted at some of the rider’s saddle?

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Despite two minutes lost, Adam Yates remains Team UAE's protected rider at Vuelta a España

Briton nearly two minutes down on race leader Primoz Roglič after suffering in heat but will continue as UAE co-leader

UAE Team Emirates say that GC contender Adam Yates will continue with protected rider status at the Vuelta a España despite losing nearly two minutes on GC in the opening stages.

Yates began the 2024 Vuelta a España as co-leader with Joao Almeida, and performed well in the stage 1 time trial, losing less than twenty seconds on Roglič. However, the Briton was one of the favourites who lost the most time in the opening mountain top stage finish at Pico Villuercas , finishing more than 90 seconds down on the Slovenian stage winner. Overall he is now at 1:56.

While his teammate and co-leader João Almeida was up with the front group of seven riders, claiming third, and is now Roglič's closest pursuer in the Vuelta a España GC standings at eighth seconds, UAE team management said Yates' difficult day was due to the extreme heat throughout the stage. For now, rather than have Yates switch to a super-domestique role given Almeida's better performance, they are still in favour of a two-pronged attack on GC.

"It's too early to look at it like that, above all because yesterday [stage 4] was a very special stage," team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 5.

Explaining that it was the heat that had caused Yates to suffer on terrain that is usually very favourable to him, Matxin said, "Yesterday, for about three hours we were racing at 42 or 43 degrees non-stop and not everybody can handle or assimilate those sorts of temperatures well."

"Adam suffered in that heat, but he's got good legs. I have no doubt about that. Even if the results are what they are, and he finished 90 seconds down on stage 4."

Rather than change strategy, Matxin said, the plan was to wait until at least stage 9 and the next crunch mountain stage through the foothills of Sierra Nevada to see how they would tackle the race with Yates and Almeida.

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"I'm an optimist and when there's a bad situation, it can always open a door to a good situation. What does that mean? When a rider loses 90 seconds, he's got a bit more freedom of movement, so I think we can look at the positive side of this as well."

Yates' GC options remain open, therefore, but Matxin recognised that there was no doubt at all who was the top favourite for the 2024 Vuelta a España. "And he's always been there, too. Anybody who's capable of winning what he's won in the Vuelta has to be a reference point and anybody who says the opposite hasn't seen his palmares in this race.

"I think Primož was, is and will be the big favourite and on stage 4 we could see just how convinced he was of his chances."

If Yates has plenty of opportunities to bounce back in the future, the good news for UAE in the Vuelta was that Almeida performed above expectations on a very steep climb. As such, riding so well on an ascent which was far from suitable for a rider who specialises in a steady 'diesel motor' pacing strategy in the mountains boded well for the Portuguese star.

"It was the first day, the first contact with the real climbs, let's see how he gets on, this is only just beginning," Matxin said about the 2023 Giro d'Italia podium finisher, who was the closest GC finisher to Roglič in the opening TT as well.

"We've also got to remember that heat factor as well for Joao, racing at 43 degrees like that makes the stage harder to take as a clear reference point for him,."

"Let's see how he gets on on Sunday's stage to Sierra Nevada when it'll be hot. Then we'll re-evaluate again when we hit the mountains in the north, which is where the Vuelta will actually be decided." 

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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews , he has also written for The Independent ,  The Guardian ,  ProCycling , The Express and Reuters .

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• Stages Stage 1 02-19 Burjeel Holdings Stage 141 km Stage 2 02-20 Presight Stage 12.1 km Stage 3 02-21 Ras Al Khaimah Stage 176 km Stage 4 02-22 Dubai Stage 168 km Stage 5 02-23 Fujairah Stage 182 km Stage 6 02-24 Aldar Stage 138 km Stage 7 02-25 International Holding Company Stage 161 km
• The UAE Tour Ed. 2023
• The UAE Tour Ed. 2022
• The UAE Tour Ed. 2021
• The UAE Tour Ed. 2020
• The UAE Tour Ed. 2019