Until a couple of years ago, Mohammed Al Murawwi would be intimidated by the kind of high-quality field of racers he will come across when the Abu Dhabi Tour begins on October 8.
After all he was just a kid not long in Dubai, having upped sticks from Ras Al Khaimah, where he grew up. It was there, through a combination of family and after-school activity that he got into cycling.
Now, though, he relishes the prospects of racing against some of the world’s best cyclists, including Peter Sagan and Vincenzo Nibali, across the deserts, mountains, coast and concrete of Abu Dhabi.
Al Murawwi said the seminal moment came when Skydive Dubai, the UAE’s first professional continental cycling team, signed him up before the first Dubai Tour in 2014.
The team are made up of a mix of nationalities and, crucially, some experienced cyclists — the Spaniard Francisco Mancebo, for example, who has won a stage at the Vuelta a Espana and finished sixth and fourth overall at the Tour de France in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
“I’ve learnt so much since joining here,” Al Murawwi said. “Training with professional riders, when we travel or race with them, it’s very different, mentally. Before, we had targets like Gulf Championships, or Arab titles.
“But now it’s tours, professional tours, high-category races, racing with professionals. Before I used to be afraid.
“I would say, ‘It’s a very big gap between us and the international circuit.’
“But now, though it’s not easy, it’s easier than before.
“We have all the facilities here — the head coach doing the general programme, where he lays out the vision of the team, team directors, massagers, managers, everything.”
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In a way, Al Murawwi’s own growth parallels that of cycling in the country. Until he joined Skydive Dubai, which is part of the Al Ahli club, he had been racing for Emirates Club in Ras Al Khaimah, and restricted mostly to the local or, at best, regional scene.
But the birth of the cycling team in 2014, and the inaugural Dubai Tour the same year, has transformed the scene.
Part of it is visible in the composition of the team itself: Emirati riders form half of the 16-rider team this year and Al Murawwi is the captain. In 2014, six were Emirati riders.
The UAE national team, led by Yousuf Mirza, will also be taking part in the Abu Dhabi Tour. And a few more teams from other emirates are said to be in the process of forming.
Al Murawwi remembers telling a journalist before the first Dubai Tour that it would mark a moment of historical significance for cycling in Dubai: a pre-Dubai Tour cycling scape and a post-Dubai Tour one.
“I was wrong,” he said. “It wasn’t changing only in Dubai, it has changed all through UAE, all through the Gulf region.
“We have the Dubai Tour, Abu Dhabi Tour now and the Sharjah Tour. With continental teams coming here, it will only increase the number of races and racers here.”
Though only 27, Al Murawwi has been cycling for 15 years. He got into it, he says, because a cousin of his cycled, representing the UAE national team.
Al Murawwi joined an extra-curricular cycling club at school and never looked back — not even for football, which he says he pursued, but only recreationally.
He has raced in the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia (a high-classification race) as well as several classics (one-day races) in Spain. The calendar ahead is as busy.
Ahead of this year’s Dubai Tour, Mancebo stressed the importance of Emirati riders going abroad and training and racing on the European circuit over the spring and summer.
The team’s goals are clear, to be competing on the big stage, the European circuit, in the Grand Tours. First, though, is Abu Dhabi, and terrain he is very familiar with.
“For sure, it’s a very big thing. The first Dubai Tour was amazing and I think the Abu Dhabi Tour — starting from Liwa, then the city, then Al Ain, then Yas Marina — it will be a great, great race.”