Ardennes Classics: the 7 riders from UAE Team Emirates

UAE Team Emirates will be competing in three World Tour races over the long week of the Ardennes Classics: the program starts with the Amstel Gold Race (Holland, April 15); then there is the Flèche Wallone (Belgium, April 18) and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Belgium, April 22).

The Emirati formation led by Sports Directors Joxean Matxin (Spain) and Daniele Righi (Italy) will try to make the most of the skills and experience of riders who already have a proven aptitude for these types of events.
Here are the seven athletes who will take on the three races: Matteo Bono (Italy), Rui Costa (Portugal), Daniel Martin (Ireland), Manuele Mori (Italy), Aleksandr Riabushenko (Belorussia), Rory Sutherland (Australia) and Diego Ulissi (Italy).

Daniel Martin has turned the Ardennes Classics into a strong suit for his competitive potential; during his career he has captured the 2013 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a second place in the 2017 edition of the Doyenne and no less than 3 podiums in the Flèche Wallonne (second in 2014 and 2017 and third in 2016): “Training gone well since Volta a Catalunya despite the heavy crash on the last stage. I’ve been in good condition all season but bad luck prevented me from showing it in results. I feel ready to head into some of my favourite races.
The course of the Flèche Wallone looks a lot more difficult thank previous years and will make the final even more testing”.

Rui Costa has also often demonstrated his class in the Ardennes (fourth in the 2015 Amstel Gold Race, third in the 2016 and fourth in the 2015 Liege-Bastogne-Liege): “I wrapped up the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in increasingly better condition, so I’m coming to the Ardennes with high morale and I’m confident that I can race to bring the team some significant results. The competition in these races is always fierce, but UAE Team Emirates will bring high quality; it’s an advantage to be able to count on a strong group.”

Diego Ulissi has made it to the top 10 in the Flèche Wallonne three times: “the race with the Huy Wall has always been the one in which I’ve managed to best express myself; the Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the race that dreams are made of. I am highly motivated, the team is competitive, we will have several options we can use to try and make our sponsors and fans happy.”