Ineos Grenadiers have announced their lineup for the upcoming UAE Tour and, as to be expected, it is stacked with talent.
The team has put all their focus on the general classification and a potential time trial stage win as well, completely ignoring the sprint stages, as you would expect considering they don't really have a sprinter in their roster.
The out-and-out leader is likely to be defending champion, Adam Yates, who is down to make his long-awaited debut for the British super-team. Yates was in commanding form at the race last year, taking a stage win as well as the overall ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) who also returns.
>>> UAE Tour start list: Chris Froome, Tadej Pogačar and Caleb Ewan all down to race in 2021
A potential second option, fresh off the back of overall victory at the Tour de la Provence, is Iván Sosa, he will likely be in a supporting role, but also a very useful tactical play should they need him, much like at Provence.
Favourite for stage two victory is time trial world champion, Filippo Ganna, with the 13km pan flat individual time trial possibly the most ideal route for the Italian.
Another potential general classification rider could be 2020 Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de France stage winner, Daniel Martínez, who is also making his debut for the team. This new influx of GC talent may work perfectly or cause yet more conundrums for the team that has a vast array of GC riders already.
The final three riders are three very important ones, Andrey Amador will be there to set up the climbs for the leader, whoever that is.
Luke Rowe will help guide the team's main man in the potential crosswinds on the flat stages in the wide open spaces of the UAE desert.
Brandon Rivera is the last man on the list, likely to be the first man on the front of the peloton, setting the pace before hitting the final climb where he will likely peel off. He will also hope to have a good ride in the ITT.
The UAE Tour starts this coming Sunday (February 21) and has attracted a plethora of talent due to several other big races being cancelled, this means the first WorldTour race of the season has been inundated with some of the biggest names in the sport.
Ineos Grenadiers UAE Tour lineup
YATES Adam
SOSA Iván
GANNA Filippo
MARTÍNEZ Daniel
AMADOR Andrey
ROWE Luke
RIVERA Brandon
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
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