UAE Team Emirates backing Atapuma in Vuelta a San Juan
One year on from the UAE Team Emirates' first victory by Rui Costa atop the Alto Colorado, the squad will return to the Vuelta a San Juan seeking similar success with a new crop of riders. Tour de Suisse stage winner Darwin Atapuma will head the six-man squad for the UCI 2.1-ranked race in Argentina, but the team are also hoping for some surprises from his lesser-known teammates.
UAE Team Emirates formed out of the Lampre-Merida team following the failure of the Chinese-backed Project TJ Sport, but despite their rocky beginnings they gelled into a cohesive unit that racked up 19 victories in 2017 and finished the season ranked a respectable 12th of 18 WorldTour teams. The squad is looking to improve on that record, and brought in several heavy hitters through last year's transfers.
Although new star recruits Fabio Aru, Dan Martin, and Alexander Kristoff will not be heading to Argentina, directeur sportif Joxean Fernández Matxin is hoping to impress with Atapuma, Moroccan Anass Ait El Abdia, Yousif Mirza, Alexandr Riabushenko, Filippo Ganna and Oliviero Troia.
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"Even though our big leaders won't be in Argentina, let there be no doubt that we're going to do well," Matxin said in a team press release. "Of the six, Atapuma is probably the most famous, but I also have a lot of faith in the young riders.
"Riabushenko has a promising, bright future; he reminds me a lot of the Frenchman [Julian] Alaphilippe. He is quite complete and a real 'killer' who, among other things, won the under-23 European Championship in 2016 and the Piccolo Giro de Lombardía in 2017," Matxin explained. "El Abdia is one of the best riders in Africa and has won his country's National Championship as well as the Tour of Morocco."
UAE national champion Yousif Mirza, too, is accomplished in smaller races, having won the national title several times and taking second place in the Asian championships. Of the Italians, Matxin says, "Ganna has shown tremendous talent on the track, where he has been individual [pursuit] World Champion, but he has also won the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs so he shows considerable promise," Matxin said. "The individual time trial in the Vuelta a San Juan will go very well for him."
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