UAE Tour 2019 – Stage 1 Preview
By David Hunter
Al Hudayriat Island 16.2km TTT
The race begins with a battle against the clock.
Fast as hell! It is an untechnical route, but with lots of changes of directions you do need to have a well drilled group.
Weather
A sunny day, with some wind coming from the North. Although not overly strong, the wind is to increase as the day go on. There is a fairly long section of headwind, those who start later will have a slight disadvantage.
Contenders
Sunweb – lots of power! Sunweb have always been one of the best in this discipline, but their decision to change to Cervelo bikes did raise some questions. Soren Kragh Andersen produced a fast TT in the Algarve, it’s safe to say the bikes are good. Most of the riders in the squad are well drilled in the art of the team time trial, but they do have a little inexperience in Cees Bol and Robert Power. Bol has made an impressive start to his time with the squad and I expect him to deliver another big performance. Sunweb will be keen on a quick time which will help the GC aspirations of Dumoulin and Kelderman.
Jumbo – this well drilled squad will be eagerly anticipating this stage. A team who regularly perform well in this discipline, they have now added the power of Tony Martin and Laurens De Plus to their line-up. They were already quick, this will make them even faster. Similar to Sunweb, they will hope for a good time to help Roglič take an early advantage over his rivals. Their last TTT outing was in the World Championships, they will be hoping for much better after disappointing in Austria.
Sky – they arrive with a solid team, don’t underestimate them. Moscon and Kwiatkowski are always strong in this discipline and I also expect big performances from Puccio and Sivakov. Sky are another team who always perform well in this discipline and they’ll be expecting to challenge for the win.
Bahrain – wouldn’t normally stand a chance in a TTT, but they now have Rohan Dennis and Jan Tratnik to help. This will add a lot of power to their squad and should propel them up the standings. It would still be a surprise if they won, but they could make the podium.
Prediction Time
This should be close between Jumbo and Sunweb, but I think Sunweb will come out on top. Their team just screams power to me.
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David Hunter
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