With huge investment pouring into cycling from the Middle East, Felix Lowe asks what this growing involvement means for the future of the sport
Illustrations Rob Milton
‘Just look at that,’ David Lappartient beams as a group of riders completes another lap of the Hudayriyat Island circuit. ‘People who don’t know Abu Dhabi feel it’s artificial, but the reality is that they have a strong passion for cycling and they’re building a strong cycling environment.’
Laying foundations in the United Arab Emirates is part of the UCI president’s global vision. Behind him, cranes tower above the shell of a new velodrome that will host the UCI Track World Championships in 2029. A year before that, the sport’s best sprinters will do battle for the rainbow jersey along the sweeping curve of the Corniche waterfront that sits beneath the towering skyscrapers on the horizon.
Replica UAE Team Emirates kits and Colnago bikes are well represented this Thursday evening in late January. The legendary Italian bike manufacturer was acquired by a UAE investment firm in 2020, three years after the old Lampre team was saved by Middle Eastern money. Inside the nearby flagship Colnago store, Tadej Pogačar’s yellow V3Rs from his maiden Tour de France win is on display – the same Pogačar now posing for photos with a group of young Emirati riders. The Slovenian superstar has been flown out from a training camp in Spain for the afternoon to join locals, UCI officials and journalists on a group ride.
Emblazoned across the back of Pogačar’s shorts is the logo of the company that is hosting us here in the Arabian Peninsula, 3,000 miles from cycling’s European heart. MyWhoosh, the Abu Dhabi-based virtual cycling app, has just been confirmed as host for the next three editions of the eSports Cycling World Championships, ending the UCI’s previous deal with Zwift.
California-based Zwift towers over MyWhoosh in user numbers, but serious investment – traced back to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the son of the founder of the UAE – saw MyWhoosh offer its users the largest prize pot in cycling e-sports history, a cool $1 million. And in a sport hampered by financial constraints, money talks.
If Lappartient claims the UCI’s deal with MyWhoosh is part of a ‘global strategy to enlarge cycling worldwide’, he also candidly admits to Cyclist that ‘the economy of our sport is not so strong. We need solid investors from this region with a long-term vision.’ This comes amid rumours of a new ‘Champions League’
