Eddie Dunbar's period on the sidelines after his recent crash has proven short-lived with the Irish rider deemed fit for racing and set to get back into action immediately.
While he had been scheduled to race in Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol (2.Pro) this week, he was non-starter and his Jayco AlUla team unveiled a five-strong line-up for that race, two riders below the full seven allowed.
However, the fact Dunbar missed that race - after a crash at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro) two weeks ago - is perhaps a blessing in disguise as farmers' protests in Spain have forced the cancellation of the first three planned road race stages.
And, in another positive for Dunbar, he is deemed fit and healthy to race by his team and will now take on a new race plan, which involves the seven-stage UAE Tour, getting underway on Monday.
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There were no reports of any serious injury for Dunbar after his stage 2 crash in Spain two weeks ago. However, while he was able to finish the stage, it was decided he would not start the following day. And when he was not included in his team's line-up for Ruta del Sol this week it raised concerns he may have some lingering injuries.
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But his team has now confirmed to stickybottle he is in good health and ready for racing and that UAE Tour will be his next race start.
UAE Tour will be a high quality race, though many of the biggest stage race riders in the world will not be present. However, UAE Team Emirates is fielding a team that includes Brandon McNulty, Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Mikkel Bjerg.
Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) also lines out, as does Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) while Dunbar's team mate, Luke Plapp, could also produce a very strong general classification challenge as could Attila Valter (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Max Poole (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
However, many of the participating teams have not yet confirmed their full line-ups, meaning the general classification battle may be even harder by the time the race starts next week.
Four of the seven stages should be for the sprinters while stage 2 is a 12.1km individual TT. The climbers, including Dunbar, will come out to play on stages three and seven with finishes on the climbs of Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet.
