Lead by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, the third Bike Abu Dhabi Gran Fondo event has been scheduled for the 16th of November in the year 2024. It is a 150 km road race this year in which the participants will start from Abu Dhabi and end at Al Ain; the total prize money is AED 2 million, which makes it a prestigious event in UAE’s sporting calendar.
Aref Hamad Al Awani, General Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, highlighted the event’s significance: “The Bike Abu Dhabi Gran Fondo is the third edition in Abu Dhabi and the event is expected to attract cycle enthusiasts and professional cyclists throughout the long event course which goes through different parts of Abu Dhabi. ”
The number of participants is growing since the beginning of the organisation in 2022 bike abu dhabi gran fondo appealing to males and female from all over the country and different backgrounds. This festival was held in 2023 where 1200 people from 75 different nations were attendants of the festival both the UAE residents, and the international ones.
Al Awani went on to note that it is much more than a race and the emphasis is not only on selling the event but raising awareness of the Sport. It is worthy to note that the Bike Abu Dhabi Gran Fondo is all about cycle riding and people togetherness; it has in mind the achievement of a noted health improvement among the populace with the aim of improving on healthier standards of living among society.
Bike Abu Dhabi is an Abu Dhabi Government-led backyard planning strategy to improve the emirate in an effort to attain an array of sustainable goals as part of the emirate’s broader strategic growth of the bicycle as a main tourism transportation tool. It is a regular healthy exercise that can be adopted as a means of transport, and a competitive sporting activity, for everyone from the novice cyclist , to the professional racer.
To foster cycling in the emirate, in November 2021, International Cycling Union decided to name Abu Dhabi as a Bike City. The inclusion of Abu Dhabi to advance biking indicates the emirate’s measures in strategies to incorporate biking as part of mobility, health, entertainment, and sports.
