Tejay van Garderen will make his 2017 season debut this week as the leader of BMC Racing at the Abu Dhabi Tour.
The four-day race begins Thursday, and thanks to its new WorldTour status, it has attracted some of the biggest names in the peloton. The sprinters and their teams are expected to dominate the three flat stages but the overall classification should be decided by Saturday’s mountain finish to Jebel Hafeet.
Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and his former Astana teammate Fabio Aru will all be in action, and are all overall contenders. Bauke Mollema leads Trek-Segafredo and will have support from team leader Alberto Contador, while Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) will ensure a big-name show down on the 10.8km climb to Jebel Hafeet.
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Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) are just two of the sprinters due to contest the three flat stages in the Middle East.
Van Garderen has spent the winter mixing spells with his BMC teammates at training camps in Spain, and time at home in the USA. He has opted to target the Giro d’Italia in May. He is expected to ride Tirreno-Adriatico in March as he prepares for the Giro d’Italia.
"I'm excited to get my 2017 season underway at the Abu Dhabi Tour. It will be a very competitive race, especially as there are also UCI WorldTour points on the line this year,” Van Garderen said in a statement from BMC.
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