Results aren’t always the priority for general classification riders at this stage in the season, and sure enough all of the big names at the Abu Dhabi Tour, gathered at a pre-race press conference on Wednesday, said they were most interested in seeing how they’re shaping up in comparison with their rivals.
And there’s no shortage of yardsticks here in the Middle East. The ‘top riders’ press conference saw 14 pros sitting in front of the media, and each GC rider could look round and see seven others that will be challenging for Grand Tour titles this year.
"The level of rivals is so high here we’ve got plenty of other things to worry about," joked Fabio Aru (Astana) when the inevitable question came about his rivalry with Vincenzo Nibali, with this the Italian pair’s first race on opposing teams.
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Also at the top table were seven-time Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Vuelta a Espana champion and former Giro d’Italia winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar), along with Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) , Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), and Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates). And that’s just those who were asked to attend the gathering; others here include Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alepecin), and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe).
"It’s exactly these kinds of tests that you need after a big block of preparation," said Quintana, who won the Volta a la Comunitat a la Valencia on his season debut last month. "We’ve seen that it’s true, I’ve got a got level, but we don’t want to just wait for what’s ahead. Here the intention is to see how things are going, and that will decide how we take it from here and approach the following races."
The Colombian is one of the world’s best climbers and will be a big favourite on the Jebel Hafeet summit finish on stage 3 – the only GC flashpoint of the race – but equally important will be the other three flat stages. Movistar boss Eusebio Unzué recently said Quintana needs to improve on flat, windy stages of the sort that cost him so dearly at the 2015 Tour de France.
Contador continues to build
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