UAE-Team Emirates is ready to become the first team from the United Arab Emirates at the Tour de France. The squad has a mix of riders to fight for stages and the General Classification.
Diego Ulissi and Ben Swift will be trying to take stage victories while Louis Meintjes will fight for the General Classification after finishing eighth in the last edition of the race and having shown good form in the Criterium du Dauphine.
“Last year I was 8th in the Tour de France, this result motivates me to try and go for some more in the GC. I hope that there will be no problems in the first week, then it will be great to have on the mountains the same feelings I had in the Criterium du Dauphiné,” said Meintjes.
“This year at the Tour de France i’ll live a new experience, because I’ll have the freedom of taking my opportunities. In the past, I worked for the team, now I’m happy that the team entrusted me of trying to be as much competitive as possible in the stages that suite me most“, said Swift.
“I will debut in the Tour, I strongly wanted to face this new challenge, in search of new motivations and in order to perceive directly how great is the Tour de France. I’ll be in France with the goal of trying to fight for a stage victory, however I’m aware that this is one of the most difficult task because everybody will go for this target“, said Diego Ulissi.
UAE Team Emirates lineup at the 2017 Tour de France: Louis Meintjes, Ben Swift, Diego Ulissi, Darwin Atapuma, Matteo Bono, Kristijan Durasek, Vegard Stake Laengen, Marco Marcato and Manuele Mori.
