UAE Team’s Italian duo eye win on home soil
dubai — UAE Team Emirates will head to their second Italian race of the season, Tirreno Adricatico, with two riders vying for the overall General Classification (GC).
The side will be led by Italian duo Fabio Aru and Diego Ulissi, the latter finishing in the top 10 of the recent Abu Dhabi Tour. Joining the riders will be teammates Jan Polanc, Filippo Ganna, Marco Marcato, Valerio Conti and Simone Consonni, with sports directors Mario Scirea, Marco Marzano and Paolo Tiralongo guiding the team through the seven stages.
Commenting on their goals for the race, Scirea said: “We are going to Tirreno-Adriatico with an aim of winning the general classification. We can aim for the overall standings with both Fabio Aru and Diego Ulissi, both of whom have showed they are going strong at the start of this season. It will be key to perform well in the team time trial during stage one, especially against the teams that are aiming for an overall victory. Filippo Ganna and Simone Consonni should both be able to help achieve a strong result — they just arrived back from the Track Cycling World Championships — while we can also rely on Marco Marcato and Diego Ulissi, who rode well at the time trial during the Abu Dhabi Tour.”
Commenting on his second appearance for UAE Team Emirates, Aru said: “Tirreno-Adriatico is one of my goals this season. I’ve only competed in the Abu Dhabi Tour so far, but the test in the UAE helped me understand what aspects of my riding I needed to work on leading up to this race. This will be a big race for us, where the time trial is extremely important. We are going in to the race motivated and the team is setup to race well.”