It has been a long old season for Alberto Contador, a man who is not getting any younger. When he arrived in Abu Dhabi for his first participation in the Abu Dhabi Tour, he admitted he was not in the best condition to be here.
He was never going to do much in the three flat stages favouring sprinters but Saturday, attacking Jebel Hafeet, was to be his day.
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In the end he did not disappoint, finishing in fifth place. But at one stage in the 11km-climb, it looked as if he might get something more, primed as he was with Vincenzo Nibali to attack the leaders.
It was not to be, though Contador did enjoy a climb of the kind he would not have seen too often in his career. “It’s good this climb,” he said after the race. “It’s very, very different to the Pyrenees or the Alps.
“Also it is a pretty hard climb. You need a very strong team to approach this and next year, on the World Tour, it might be harder.”
Contador did not think Tanel Kangert was an unexpected stage winner, but he was happy with his own performance. “I’m happy with my result. After I started training I was sick and couldn’t go to Il Lomdardia [which he missed because of flu] and did a little training before this. I am happy with this.”
With just the final stage of the race at the Yas Marina Circuit left on Sunday, Tinkoff rider Contador is already looking forward to putting his bike away, his feet up, and putting on a few extra kilos.
“This was a hard race, especially as I’m not in very good condition,” he said. “But I knew when I came here to Abu Dhabi, I needed to only enjoy the race.
“I am happy also that we are more or less in the front, which was good for the team. Tomorrow is last day of the season and we can look ahead to 2017. Now I am finished I will have time to enjoy. It’s good because you finish the season late here, you have less time to gain more kilograms in the winter.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Thor: Ragnarok
Dir: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson
Four stars
FIGHT INFO
Men’s 60kg Round 1:
Ahmad Shuja Jamal (AFG) beat Krisada Takhiankliang (THA) - points
Hyan Aljmyah (SYR) beat Akram Alyminee (YEM) - retired Round 1
Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) beat Bhanu Pratap Pandit (IND) - TKO Round 1
Men’s 71kg Round 1:
Seyed Kaveh Soleyman (IRI) beat Abedel Rahman (JOR) - RSC round 3.
Amine Al Moatassime (UAE) walk over Ritiz Puri (NEP)
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
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- Unlike previous French demonstrations there was no trade union or organised movement involved
- Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
- At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
- Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars
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Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
