Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar won the 2021 edition of the UAE Tour.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The fourth edition of the UAE Tour, the one and only World Tour race in the Middle East, will begin on Feb.20, as ratified by the sports world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

The race, organised in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Sports Council and RCS Sport, is set to kick-start the 2022 UCI WorldTour racing calendar, starting and finishing in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

Next year’s race will cross a diverse mixture of landscapes — mountains, coastal and desert roads, as well as city streets, across its seven stages.

The 2022 UAE Tour will build on the success of its previous three editions - won by world-class riders Primoz Roglic (2019), Simon Yates (2020) and most recently two-time Tour de France-winner Tadej Pogacar (2021).

Since its first edition in 2019, the UAE Tour continues to go from strength to strength, with this year’s edition hosting the full roster of 19 UCI World Teams for the very first time. Images from 2021’s race were broadcast across 200 countries, while domestically, the success of the one and only WorldTour race in the Middle-East has had an enduring effect on the sport of cycling in the region. Next year’s race coincides with another significant event for the nation — Expo 2020 Dubai — a world expo running from October 1 to March 31 2022.