Cycling in the UAE reached another milestone, with the inaugural Emirati Cycle Challenge at Al Wathba Cycle Track in Abu Dhabi.

Organised by the Sultan Hazza Al Darmaki Stables, and open to Emirati social riders, the race also featured challenges for both male and female riders.

The turnout delighted organisers, with 96 cyclists taking part – 23 female and 73 male – with the female riders competing over 16km, and the males over 48km.

Challenge organiser Sultan Hazza Al Darmaki said: “We decided that because here in the UAE cycling is growing very quickly that we would like to encourage our young talented riders and some not so young new talented riders to take up the sport of cycling, and challenge themselves to get fit and ride in a cycle race.

“I decided a few weeks back that I wanted to thank HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan for this truly beautiful facility and show how much we as local Emiratis appreciate this gift. I thought that I would host a cycle challenge for the local men and women to encourage them to come out and enjoy the facilities we have.

"We focused our attention not at the already strong professional riders, but rather at the social and relatively new cyclists, as there are already many races that are designed for the professional riders in the UAE . This race was to show what fun you can have at a cycle race as an amateur and that as a newcomer you too can be competitive in the sport of cycling.”

The women’s race was won by Shathra Ahmed Al Haijaji, with Hanadi Alkabouri finishing 21 seconds behind in second and Noor Walker taking third. The men’s race was a tight finish with Mohammed Almazrooei crossing the line just ahead of Khaled Al Muhairi with Bader Thani in third.

Al Damarki added: “We are very lucky that Sheikh Mansour has given us this beautiful cycle track in our back garden, to use and train on. Our cycle track is currently 16 km long, but already the Sheikh is adding more to our loop track with an extra 100 kms to open soon.

"Not only is the surface very smooth to ride on, but have the best solar powered lights to help us train in the cooler evening or early mornings, it truly an amazing place to have a cycle track in the Desert.”

The Al Wathba cycle track, which is free to use, is open at all times to both locals and expats.