At a pre-race press conference, Cavendish noted that the depth of sprinters in the UAE Tour is "probably even higher than the Tour de France."
He also explained that one of the reasons he wanted to participate this year was because it "provides a great opportunity to hone and build a team to run in the bunch sprint finals."
The week-long UAE Tour features four flat stages, stages 4, 5, and 6, beginning with the opening leg on Monday to Al Mirfa.
Cavendish was not very forthcoming when asked about his winter and whether he was worried that he might have to retire, given the slow progress in finding a team after the collapse of the B&B Hotels project, with which he was strongly associated. To the question, he answered frankly, "No."
The Englishman was almost equally reticent when asked if the winter months had been difficult, perhaps repelling the journalist with a rhetorical question.
"It was fine, thank you. How have the last few months been for Mine?
As for racing, Cavendish has won both the Tour of Abu Dhabi and the Tour of Dubai, as well as a stage win at the UAE Tour last spring. And the 37-year-old was happy to be back in the race, also known as the unofficial "sprinter's world championships."
"It's always an important race, especially for sprinters. Of course, climbers will win [overall] in Jabal Hafeet and Jabel Jais, but there is no other race like this in the world in terms of having all the sprinters in one place at one time."
[17"So it's an important race for me as a sprinter and for the team, and it's good to get the ball rolling early in the year.
With many of the top fastest riders in the UAE, including Caleb Yuan, Arnaud Demaret, Fernando Gaviria, Sam Bennett, and Tim Mellier, Cavendish claimed that the sprint field is of higher quality than the Tour de France.
"It's probably more concentrated with sprinters than the Tour, so it's very important for us. It's also important on a personal level, I spend a lot of time here and Abu Dhabi is like a second home." Abu Dhabi is like a second home.
Cavendish was asked for more information about his team and his expectations for the UAE Tour. He said, "I'm not sure what to expect from the UAE Tour, but I'm very excited about it because it provides a great opportunity to hone and build my team to run in the bunch sprint finals."
He added, "I'm very excited about it because it provides a great opportunity to hone and build my team to run in the bunch sprint finals.
He noted that Cavendish is ideal because the UAE prefers "big, wide roads" with "long, flat" finals.
Cavendish also praised the UAE's national commitment to promoting cycling and the continued development of its cycling infrastructure, saying he was "proud to have personally witnessed it."
Whether the UAE will witness Cavendish's sprint this February remains to be seen. However, on Monday afternoon, the last kilometer of Mirfa was slightly downhill, at least according to the route book, with a sharp right-hand curve for the last 500 meters.
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