Sam Bennett, who will return to the UAE race, will lead Bora-Hansgrohe to his 2022 debut, and the Irish driver will be in a peak duel with numerous sprint opponents on Sunday 20 February, including former teammate Mark Cavendish of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl. Dylan Groenewegen of BikeExchange-Jayco and Elia Viviani of Ineos Grenadiers.
Alpecin-Fenix's Jasper Philipsen will also make his debut in the seven-day World Tour opener, while FDJ's Arnaud Demare will travel to the UAE to continue seeking his first win of the 2022 season after finishing fifth in the Tour de Provence.
Fernando Gaviria, who wore a green shirt in the Tour de Oman, missed the Tour de Emirati because he was still positive for his third time, and the newly signed Pascal Ackermann will take his place. Lotto Soudal's Caleb Ewan also gave up playing for the Tour de Emira after a recent illness.
Bennett returned to Bora after two years with the Fast Pacers, and his season debut was delayed due to knee problems, so there don't seem to be high hopes for him.
He will face a group of drivers who have already found form in the 2022 race, and they have even won the single race in the race, Viviani won the single race in the S1 stage of the Tour de Provence, Gerunavigen won both the S3 and S5 stages of the Tour de Saud, and Cavendish won the first victory of the season in the S2 stage of the Tour of Oman and also finished second in the S1 stage.
Geert Van Bondt, sporting director of The Fast Pace Team, said: "Mark proved his form in the Ring of Oman and we have a lot of confidence in him on the first World Tour of the season. He will have a strong team to support him, and his old partner Michael M rk v will lead him. "
The Tour de Uae starts in the desert stage of Madinat Zayed and ends with the classic mountain stage in Jebel Hafeet. As long as there are no major crosswinds on the first two days of the race, it is a good stage for sprinters. The S3 stage will have a 9km individual time trial, the S4 stage sets the first mountain stage of the race, S5 and S6 return to the flat stage, continue to leave the stage for the sprinters, and finally compete for the overall result in the S7 alpine stage!
The Uae's tour officials said: "There are four flat road stages in the planned race route this year, which provides a good stage for sprinters who want to play in the first UCI World Tour of the season. "
"As a result, this year's race, like the previous three races, attracted many of the top drivers in professional teams, with the six sprinters announced having won a total of 83 Grand Tour 19 titles!"
Last year, Bennett won two stages in his Tour de emirati debut, only to be overtaken by Lotto team's Euan in front of the finish line of the last stage, losing his third stage title.
Hrunavihon won a single race in the 2020 Tour de uae S4, while Cavendish has yet to win a single race in the Tour de emirati, but he has won three times in the shorter Tour de Dubai, which merged with the Tour de Abu Dhabi in 2019 to become the current Tour of the UAE.
Edit: Johnny
Image source: Infographic Gallery