UAE Team Emirates set for Tour de France
Dubai — UAE Team Emirates will tackle its first Tour de France, the second Grand Tour of the season, this Saturday with a line-up that includes both strong climbers and attackers, all seeking stage wins on the ultimate test of professional cycling.
Among the UAE Team Emirates line-up is South African rider and eighth place finisher in last year’s Tour de France, Louis Meintjes, who will be leading the team’s General Classification charge at the 104th edition of the race.
Starting in Dusseldorf, the race takes place from Saturday, July 1 to Sunday, July 23, with 21 stages in the contest for the famous winner’s Maillot Jaune or Yellow Jersey.
This year’s edition will start in Germany for the first time in three decades, with the opening time trial set to challenge the skills of the entire peloton.
The Maillot Jaune contenders are set to go head-to-head for the first time on the fifth stage which will see the first of three mountain-top finishes at La Planche des Belles Filles. The remaining two mountain-top finishes — Peyragudes and Col d’Izoard — don’t appear until stages 12 and 18 respectively.
The Tour de France is far more than a cycling race. This year cycling’s oldest and most prestigious race will take in three countries, see two individual time trials and three mountain-top finishes.