Tour de France
Arab millions in cycling: Saudis and Tour winners
Drives for UAE Team Emirates: Tadej Pogacar. photo
© Daniel Cole/AP/dpa
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates already have their own cycling teams. Saudi Arabia has their sights set on the Tour winner’s team. A professional doesn’t want to be bought.
A peace trip is the latest project. To finish the In the cycling season, the Peace Race from Israel via Bahrain to the United Arab Emirates will be held for the first time next year.
All the stars should be there, money plays a subordinate role. Middle Eastern countries are playing an increasingly important role – and the heavyweight is probably yet to come.
Saudi Arabia
Since mid-June there has been a persistent rumor that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF wants to take over the Jumbo-Visma team from current Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard. There are no denials, the previous sponsor Jumbo will withdraw at the end of 2024. So far, Saudi Arabia has acted as a co-sponsor in the peloton, and the Al-ʿUla region’s tourism agency supports the Australian Jayco racing team. “I don’t think you can defend yourself. And you shouldn’t defend yourself against investors from the Middle East,” said Bora team boss Ralph Denk on Deutschlandfunk.
United Arab Emirates
The Arab money is also helping Tadej Pogacar’s Team UAE to one of the top budgets in the peloton. Allegedly, only the British Ineos team has a larger budget of around 50 million euros. UAE is said to be luring the classics specialist Mathieu van der Poel with an annual salary of six million euros. But there are also cancellations. “I’d rather make the morally and ethically right choice,” said U23 World Time Trial Champion Søren Wærenskjold, turning down an offer. Incidentally, the main sponsor of the Norwegian team is the petrol station chain UnoX.
Bahrain
Recently, Phil Bauhaus shone in the sprints, with Wout Poels and Pello Bilbao they have already won two stages. In the past two years, Bahrain-Victorious has made the headlines more because of doping investigations. The team hotel was searched during the 2021 tour, and there were raids in several countries before last year’s Grand Départ. The investigations are still ongoing. Human rights activists say the team is a vehicle for Bahrain’s sportswashing. The team emphasized that they are completely independent of the government.