Cycling in the Middle East gained a big boost as Dubai has been granted the rights to hold an event on the UCI World Cycling Amateur Tour.   

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The Dubai Gran Fondo will be held on March 20 and is the third event on this year’s UCI World Tour, a series of events held around the world where amateurs compete in road races. The tour consists of 13 events where the top 25 percent of finishers will qualify for the UCI World Amateur Road Championships in Denmark in September. 

An organiser of the event said: "One of the aims of this tour is the global promotion of 'Cycling for All', and with cycling in the UAE becoming so popular, we are pleased to be bringing this event to the Middle East for the first time.

“Dubai’s cycling calendar is expanding rapidly, and the addition of this event is an important step in the development of cycling in Dubai. We have so many keen amateur and masters cyclists here, and now they have an opportunity to represent their countries on the world stage.

"This event will further promote the growth of cycling in the region and attract international amateur cyclists to Dubai."

The Dubai event will consist of a 130km road race around the streets of Dubai, starting and finishing at the purpose built Dubai Cycling course at Al Qudra.

The event is set to attract big interest after the first two events on the calendar, in Australia and South Africa, saw 5,000 and 10,000 riders participate respectively.