Abu Dhabi Tour announces teams and top riders for inaugural race

Led by Mark Cavendish, the world's best riders will descend upon the capital in early October to take part in the first Abu Dhabi Tour.

Joaquim Rodriguez, Philippe Gilbert and Peter Sagan will join Cavendish as part of 18 teams that will ride in the four-stage 555km race from October 8-11. Rodriguez is currently second in the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) world rankings and finished third overall in the 2013 Tour de France.

Sagan is acknowledged as one of cycling's finest young riders, having won four stages in the Tour de France as well as the Points Classification in that race for the last four years.

See more: Abu Dhabi Tour 2015 route in focus

Fabio Aru, the recent winner of the Vuelta a Espana, his teammate Vincenzo Nibali and the leader of the 2015 UCI ranking, the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde will also be racing.

Eighteen teams, including two from the UAE, with six riders each will take part, of which 10 will be WorldTour teams and five Professional Continental teams, as well as Team Wiggins and Team Sky.

"Abu Dhabi Tour has the will to become a reference in the international calendar,” said Aref Hamed Al Awani, General Secretary of Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC). "Big names and the best teams, including seven squads from the Velon Group, assure an amazing competition across the four stages to attract the gaze of the world's media. We are very proud and ready to host and show our assets to the cycling world”.

Teams and lead riders:

ASTANA PRO TEAM (Kazakhstan) – Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru

BMC RACING TEAM (USA) – Philippe Gilbert

BORA-ARGON 18 (Germany) – Emanuel Buchmann

COLOMBIA (Colombia) – Carlos Quintero

DRAPAC PROFESSIONAL CYCLING (Australia) – Graeme Brown

ETIXX-QUICK STEP (Beglium) – Mark Cavendish

LAMPRE-MERIDA (Italy) – Diego Ulissi, Xu Gang

MOVISTAR TEAM (Spain) – Alejandro Valverde

MTN-QHUBEKA (South Africa) – Daniel Teklehaimanot

ORICA GreenEDGE (Australia) – Michael Matthews, Rubio Chaves

SKYDIVE DUBAI PRO CYCLING TEAM-AL AHLI CLUB (UAE) – Mohammad Al Murawwi

TEAM GIANT-ALPECIN (Germany) – Marcel Kittel, Tom Dumoulin, Ji Cheng

TEAM KATUSHA (Russia) – Joaquim Rodriguez

TEAM SKY (Great Britain) – Richie Porte

TEAM WIGGINS (Great Britain) – Daniel Patten

TINKOFF-SAXO (Russia) – Peter Sagan

UAE NATIONAL TEAM – Yousif Mirza

UNITEDHEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM (USA) – Jani Brajkovic.
Source: WAM