The race is only a few seconds old and there is already pure stress. Immediately after the lead car has pulled ahead and thus ended the neutralisation, there is an attack. A few over-motivated riders chase off at a crawling pace and the speed behind them also increases. After a few hundred metres, my speedometer is already showing 60 km/h. And I'm practically flying blind: it's still pitch dark and sunrise is just over half an hour away. Streetlights illuminate the first few kilometres in Al Bahyah, a suburb of Abu Dhabi, but some things remain hazy in the diffuse light. In front of me, someone pulls up his racing bike, I do the same reflexively and fly over a speed bumber that I didn't see coming.
Then it's off to the next roundabout and I work my way a little further forward on the outside. There I see Fancisco Mancebo attacking, fourth in the Tour de France in 2005 and still a professional at Continental level at the age of 47. He breaks away with a small group, but they can't defend themselves for long against the immense initial speed of the peloton. Everyone is eager for the big prize at the Bike Abu Dhabi Gran Fondo, the amateur race with the highest prize money in the world. Positions are already being fought for as if it were the final. And there are still 150 kilometres to go. Well, that could be fun.
Abu Dhabi Gran Fondo starts before sunrise
An hour earlier, I was still looking into yawning faces. It's five o'clock in the morning and dark when the taxi driver drops me off at a car park, a good 30 kilometres from the centre of Abu Dhabi. A few figures silently unload their bikes from the cars. You can barely see your hand in front of your eyes. While the thermometer here in mid-November usually scrapes the 30-degree mark during the day, it is much cooler now. The morning silence is pierced by a loud call. The muezzin calls to prayer through the loudspeakers of a mosque on the other side of the street. Some of the race organisation staff follow suit. They gather under a lantern to pray together.
Record prize money at the Gran Fondo
Next to it, a few generator-powered spotlights illuminate a small section of the huge car park. A few stewards are already checking start numbers and starting blocks: elite with a licence on the left, everyone on the right. On the starting grid, I strike up a conversation with a couple of guys from Bahrain. Some of them are from North Africa, but they ride for a club in Bahrain. The high prize money has lured them here, they say. That probably applies to many of the 800 or so starters. They pay out a whopping half a million euros to the best participants in the Gran Fondo.
A different dimension compared to European races. While there are usually smaller non-cash prizes or nothing at all for the winners in this country, the organiser - the Abu Dhabi Sports Association - aggressively advertises the high prizes for winners and runners-up on social media. A good €5,000 is also paid out to the winners in the age groups, equally for both genders, which is a far cry from many European races. For Abu Dhabi, the Gran Fondo is just a small component of a large, multi-million euro cycling masterplan (see below), which is supported by the government of the Emirates.
Ex-professionals set the tone at the Gran Fondo
This includes the Dubai Police Cycling Team; it is one of the largest teams in the race and leads the field with a dozen riders. The team is not only made up of police officers from Dubai, but also strong riders from Africa, Europe and Asia. At dawn, they successfully send one of their riders into the five-man breakaway group and try to control the race from then on. After 65 kilometres, the quintet already has a 2:25 minute lead over the peloton, where some are starting to get nervous in view of the large lead. The Shabab Al Ahli Cycling Team is not represented in the front group and takes over the chase with more than 20 riders.
Last year's winner Grega Bole from Slovenia is clearly in charge here: "Go, guys, are you sleeping!", he loudly urges his team-mates to close the hole again. Bole was a World Tour pro with Team Bahrain until 2020 and now rides semi-professionally in the Emirates. Behind the big teams, who are fiercely defending their long lines at the front of the peloton against "intruders", a constant battle for positions breaks out. Everyone wants to get to the front. Even the wide, perfectly tarmaced roads through the desert east of Abu Dhabi are not wide enough. Some push their way to the front on the dirty hard shoulder and some regret it shortly afterwards as air whistles out of their tyres.
Falls again and again
The front of the field is like a big washing machine: as soon as you've worked your way to the front on the outside, you're flushed to the back again in the dense crowd in the centre. Not taking part in the battles for position is not an option either, as there are repeated crashes in the centre of the field. Two riders get caught up and take a whole row of riders down with them. Phew, that was close, I think, and a rider next to me in the yellow kit of VC Frankfurt seems to be thinking the same thing. "Awesome!" says Julian Fröhlich and takes a deep breath, "everyone here is super nervous today."
He has the comparison: he has been living in Abu Dhabi for a few months, regularly competes in bike races here and tells me that the Gran Fondo is tackled particularly aggressively - because of the high prize money. While Julian doesn't want to put up with the stress of the peloton and later joins a second group, I change my strategy: I approach the guys from the Dubai Police Team and offer to go with them through the front of their line, which they accept. At 45 km/h in the wind, this takes a bit of energy, but I now have my unrivalled position at the front of the field and can avoid the crashes.
Battle for the top places
After a good hundred kilometres of flat terrain, the profile of the route now becomes at least a little more undulating. The short climbs on the road to Al Ain have been marked in the road book and some riders are chasing up at full throttle. But nobody wants to be left behind here, so close to the finish. We follow the attacks in single file, my heart rate monitor shows 185 beats per minute. The speed chase actually brings us back within sight of the escapees at the front. They are caught again 17 kilometres before the finish. This is the moment when I launch my attack. I shoot past the peloton on the right and open up a small gap with three other riders. We make ourselves small and chase away at 55 km/h - only to realise shortly afterwards that the peloton has caught up with us again.
Set with X, that was probably nothing. And then it gets really hairy: we shoot into a large subway at high speed and suddenly there's a bang right in front of me. Wheels and bodies fly through the air, metal scrapes across the tarmac. Participants fall across almost the entire width of the carriageway. I somehow manage to brake hard to get between the bunch of riders and the wall. But the front runners have got ahead of me! After a chase to catch up, I make it back into the leading group, which has shrunk to around a hundred riders. After a good 150 kilometres, we turn onto the finishing straight at high speed. I mobilise the last of my strength to work my way forward in the wind on the outside.
Among the top 5
Dubai Police put in a textbook sprint move and deliver their sprinter Yacine Hamza in perfect position. The African vice-champion from Algeria wins the sprint with aplomb, behind him there is a fight for every place. Unfortunately, I've shot my powder and roll into the finish in 43rd place, disappointed. There I learn that I still managed to finish 5th in my age group and therefore actually made it into the prize money. This is probably one of the reasons why I see so many happy faces in the finish area on the edge of the oasis town of Al Ain. There's laughter during the free massages and reports of the experiences in the peloton at the buffet. In the shower of confetti at the spectacular award ceremony, the exertions, crashes and arguments during the race are quickly forgotten, at least for those who escaped without injury - and can now look forward to a substantial prize.
The most important information about the Gran Fondo in Abu Dhabi
- Distance: 154 km
- Altitude metres: 470
- Start: Al Bahyah, Abu Dhabi
- Target: Al Bateen, Al Ain
- Start time: 6 o'clock
- Prize money: total 505,000 euros
- Prize money for the overall winner: 25,275 Euro
- Prize money for the age group winner: 5055 Euro Age groups (women and men): 18-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75+
- Authorised to start: UCI Continental Teams, Elite, Amateurs, Everyman and Women
- Entry fee: 105 Euro (including return transfer by bus from Al Ain to Al Bahyah)
Abu Dhabi's ambitious cycling plans
Are the United Arab Emirates a cycling nation? What was once considered unthinkable in view of the immense car traffic, lack of cycle paths and a barely existing cycling scene is now different. The Emirates have become a heavyweight in international cycling: The UAE team led by Tadej Pogacar is the strongest cycling team in the world in terms of points, and the UAE Tour is firmly established on the World Tour racing calendar. They have already organised the Urban Cycling World Championships in the capital Abu Dhabi, The Road World Championships will follow in 2028 and the 2029 Track Cycling World Championships.
All of this will take place on an artificially created island, Al Hudayriyat Island, a multi-billion project with an area of 51 million square metres. There is already a training track there exclusively for cyclists; a velodrome and mountain bike course are under construction. There are also weekly training sessions on the Yas Marina Circuit Formula 1 track and officially 300 kilometres of cycle paths.
For these measures, the UCI awarded Abu Dhabi the UCI Bike City label, the first Asian city to do so. In reality, however, this does not mean that it is easy to cycle everywhere in the city. Large motorways with lots of traffic and no cycle paths characterise the cityscape and mean that many cyclists (still) put their bikes in their cars to ride to one of the designated training routes and train there. However, the cycling scene is growing significantly and is benefiting from the many new cycle routes.
