Season heats up as Saudi Tour & Vuelta Valenciana begin

UAE Team Emirates will begin a block of racing in the Middle-East in their highly anticipated build-up to the UAE Tour, starting with the Saudi Tour from 30 January – 3 February while the team will also race in Spain at the Vuelta Valenciana from 1-5 February.
The team for Saudi will look towards Davide Formolo and Felix Grossschartner in terms of GC ambitions while Pascal Ackermann will aim to take advantage of the sprint opportunities with a strong leadout train to back him up.

Ackermann: “Here in Saudi I’ll be focusing on the sprint stages together with Gibbons as my leadout man. We have a good understanding with each other so hopefully it will click. Also for the GC, we have Formolo & Grossschartner so we have a really strong team in general. This year I want to prove myself with more victories and return to my old level.”
Marc Soler will hope to take advantage of the Spanish support as he heads-up a team heavy with climbing talent at Vuelta Valenciana. Sebastian Molano will be on-hand to take his chances in the sprints.

Joxean Matxin Fernandez (Sports Manager) :
“For Valenciana we have a very experienced team with an attacking mentality so we aim to animate the race and go for victories.
After the fantastic win at the Tour Down Under we’re very keen to taste our first victory here in Europe.
Juan Ayuso was due to start his season here but he has been suffering a bit from tendonitis so we preferred not to rush into racing. Juan is in good spirit and we have no doubt he will be ready to start his season very soon.”.

The team for Saudi will be guided by Sports Director Fabio Baldato (Ita) and Technical Assistant Yousif Mirza (UAE).

Saudi Tour [2.1] – 30-Jan-2023 / 03-Feb-2023

Pascal Ackermann (Ger)
Davide Formolo (Ita)
Ryan Gibbons (RSA)
Felix Grossschartner (Aus)
Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
Ivo Oliveira (Por)

Sports Manager Joxean Matxin Fernandez will lead the team in Vuelta Valenciana, being joined by Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman (Slo) and Simone Pedrazzini (Swi).
Vuelta Comunitat Valenciana [2.Pro] – 01-Feb-2023 / 05-Feb-2023

Diego Ulissi (Ita)
Mikkel Bjerg (Den)
Rafal Majka (Pol)
Brandon McNulty (USA)
Sebastian Molano (Col)
Domen Novak (Slo)
Marc Soler (Spa)