With less than a day to go until the UAE Tour , remember to check the timer on the app so you can enter your lineups and make your market trades in time.

On the eve of the start, the protagonists spoke, above all the big favorite, world champion Tadej Pogaca : "It has always been a dream of mine to be the world champion. Finally I have the rainbow jersey, it seems unreal and coming here to my team's home country with this jersey is fantastic. So far, I have started every season with some doubts about my preparation. I hope to be fit enough to compete at the highest level. Let's cross our fingers and hope it will be like last year and the years before. I am motivated and eager to start the season, I will do my best. The time trial is important in this UAE Tour, but I don't think it will make a big difference, maybe a few seconds . It is not long, so I think the biggest gaps can be made thanks to the fans".  

Last year's winner Lennart Van Eetvelt also spoke out, but this year he will have to compete with Pogacar : “It's a great feeling to come back here and see my name on the trophy as the reigning champion. I have a great memory of winning the Jebel Hafeet stage and the general classification last year: it was fantastic. It was a surprise and I'm happy to sit here next to Tadej [Pogacar]. We never want to start for second place, but when he starts it's difficult to compete with him and realistically it will be a race for second place”.

This UAE Tour will also be a good challenge among the sprinters, with the top World Tour riders Philipsen, Merlier, Milan and Kooij present: "It would be nice to do a hat trick with a win in the first stage - said Merlier. But the competition is very high with many sprinters. It seems that the legs are good since the first race and I think I will have some chances to try to win a stage here".  

Philipsen echoes him: “The UAE Tour is a really good race to start with because it lasts a week and there are some very competitive sprinters. This year in particular, it’s nice to start here, a week before the opening weekend in Belgium. There won’t be many sprints before the classics, so it’s nice to test the legs.  

Jonathan Milan, who started very well at the Vuelta Valenciana , is also highly anticipated: “The UAE Tour is an important race and a good one to start with. The level of the competitors is very high. I will try to win with the help of a strong team, I am quite confident”.