Interview with the Moroccan champion: 10 questions

Cycling makes you dream and Anass Ait el Abdia, Moroccan national champion and cyclist of Team UAE, is well aware of it.
The North-African athlete (here his biography sheet) will debut as member of his new team in the Tour of Oman (14-19 February): 10 questions to know him better.

1- Thinking about your cycling dreams. how have you imagined your debut in a World Tour team?
I always dreamt of racing in a professional team, in a few days this will become real. It will be even better, since I’ll wear the jersey of a World Tour team, the best for a cycling.
It’s such a honor to be a member of the Team UAE’s roster, this feeling will help me to give the best for realizing top performances.

2- Which are your feelings heading to the Tour of Oman?
I know for certain that the debut in the Tour of Oman will be forever in my mind as an everlasting memory. It’s such an exciting feeling thinking that I’ll be on the start line of the first stage, on my Colnago bike, together with my new team mates, ready to fulfill the task which will be assigned to me by the sports director Pedrazzini.

3- Is there in Team UAE roster any rider you’re very happy to ride with?
In the team’s roster there are many talented cyclists and they all are very kind guys.
I know Yousif Mirza for a long time and I’m happy to be with him in taking this important step in our cycling careers: we’ll share the same feelings in our first year in the World Tour.

4- When and how did you begin to cycle?
As many other kids, bike was a beautiful toy when I was very young: I was lucky to have a bike and to have fun riding it.
The game became a sports activity when I was 12, in 2007: I began riding for an amateur team in Marrakech and I participated in races with other young riders, having a lot of fun.
Race after race, year after year, my passion became my job.

5- When did you become aware that you would have the opportunity to race at a high level?
I won some races, and then I won again and again. When I beat the most competitive Moroccan riders, I understood that my cycling skills were not so bad and that I could have good expectations in the cycling world.

6- How did you join the World Cycling Center in Aigle and how the years you spent there were important for you?
There was a situation and a place which were key elements for my recruitment in the World Cycling Center: Tour of Morocco 2014, Tinghir. In that oasis on the Atlas mountains, I won a stage which had started from Ouarzazate and I drew the attention of the persons in Aigle, who proposed me to join the Center.
This is how an impressive experience began: it gave me the opportunity to participate in many professional races and to know better many subjects which are very important for a cyclists, as an example the nutritional matters and the public relations.

7- You live in Marocco, which are your daily the training courses?
I was born in Casablanca, however I live in Marrakech, which is set in a mountainous zone. I can train on hilly courses, covering climbs, I often cover roads near Amzmiz, Asni or Ouarzazate.

8- Do you live with your parents? Is there any cyclist in your family?
I live with my father and my mother, I’m single and I’m the only one cyclist in my family, so I feel that cycling is not something I genetically inherited.

9- One memory from the Olympic Games and from the World Championship in Doha
Participating in these two sports event was such a joy, it was a sort of prize for all the efforts and the challenges I faced on the bike.
The best moment was at the World Championship, when I joined the main breakaway of the race and when I succeeded in resisting in the front group until the arrival, pedaling with the world champion Sagan, Cavendish and Boonen and obtaining the 22nd place.

10- Which was your first feeling when you joined Team UAE in Italy in the training camp in Terracina?
It was a great feeling to be welcomed in a warm and, at the same time professional, way by my new team: it was a dream becoming true.