Rising Irish U23 star Michael O'Loughlin, third left, will take on some of the world's biggest names when he starts the 2.HC-ranked Abu Dhabi Tour as part of a six-man Team Wiggins line-up.
By Brian Canty
Fresh from his superb performances at the UCI World Road Championships in Doha last week, Irish teenager Michael O’Loughlin is remaining in the Middle-East after getting the nod to start the Abu Dhabi Tour.
The 2.HC-ranked event has a star-studded line-up for the four-day event which kicks off on Thursday.
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Among those the Carrick man will face are Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Racing Team) and fellow Irishman Nicolas Roche (Team Sky).
O’Loughlin has raced fields of this class before as he competed in the Tour of Yorkshire, though that was one day less and had a 2.1 ranking.
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Alongside him in the team this week are Daniel Pearson, James Knox, Chris Latham, Jonathen Latham and Andrew Tennant, making them one of the youngest squads in the race.
The race has three flat stages but that in no way means a bunch sprint will be the outcome and as is often the case in the Gulf, the wind often shreds the peloton into several groups by the finish.
The queen stage is Saturday’s penultimate leg which takes the riders on a 150-kilometre journey to a summit finish at Jebel Hafeet.
It’s all a learning curve for O’Loughlin, of course, though he’ll be more than pleased to hear reigning champion Esteban Chaves (Orica BikeExchange) won’t be there.
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