DUBAI // The 2016 Dubai Tour starts Wednesday with the Dubai Silicon Oasis stage to Fujairah, and last year’s winner Mark Cavendish and Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins will be seeking very different objectives over the next few days.
Cavendish has spent the winter focusing on track events and finished fourth at last month’s UCI Track World Cup omnium in Japan as he prepares for the Rio Olympics this summer. Still, he is hoping for a strong showing from his team on the road.
“I’ve been at the Dubai Tour the past two years and I’ve enjoyed them both times. It’s a great way to start the season,” Cavendish told reporters yesterday. “Normally I would have had a week’s racing under my belt before this race, so I’m not too sure of my form.”
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The 179-kilometre Silicon Oasis stage will start at Dubai Marine International Club (DIMC) at 11am and will run through Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah.
It will touch the Silicon Oasis area and cut through long desert straights and dunes before ending at Fujairah where the riders will complete two laps of a 6.6km circuit.
Cavendish is confident that the Dubai Tour’s mostly flat roads will benefit him.
“I’m sprinting good and had a winter on the track, and the Dubai Tour lends itself to a majority of sprints,” he said. “I know the stage to Hatta Damn is a tough one, but I’m here with Dimension Data and we come here looking for strong result anyway.”
Wiggins, racing for the first time in Dubai and under the banner of his newly formed Team Wiggins, was in a relaxed mood and tempered any expectations fans might have.
“Don’t expect too much,” he said. “Unlike everyone else, I’m not actually hoping to do anything in this race.
“This is one of four road races I’m doing this year just to be here with my team. It’s nice to be here with the young guys.”
“The majority of the team are track riders. In particular Chris Latham is a young 20 year old who is quite fast. He rode in the Abu Dhabi Tour last year and he’s probably our best chance of a finish. Not to win but to be in the top 10.”
Wiggins said that he had always planned to start his own team to act as a launching pad for careers at bigger teams like Sky.
“I could have signed for another three years with another big team, took a lot of money each month as an ex-Tour winner and had an easy life,” he said. “But I always wanted to do something different when I finished with road racing and having a development team was always in the back of my mind.
“It’s an honour to have my own team.”
Marcel Kittel returns to Dubai with new team, Etixx–Quick-Step, and is hoping for a repeat performance of two years ago when he won three stages of the Dubai Tour.
“For me it’s good to start the new season with a new team,” he said. “I’m really happy with the time I’ve spent in training camps and in preparation for the new year, and now is the moment to show my motivation, to show that all the work we put together as a team will hopefully pay off.
Team Sky’s Elia Viviani won the Palm Jumeirah stage last year and is looking to add to that this week.
“I hope to win again here at Dubai Tour,” he said. “I won in Dubai, I won in Abu Dhabi – maybe it’s a lucky part of the world for me.”
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MATCH INFO
Chelsea 1 (Hudson-Odoi 90 1')
Manchester City 3 (Gundogan 18', Foden 21', De Bruyne 34')
Man of the match: Ilkay Gundogan (Man City)
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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The specs
Engine: 3.6 V6
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Power: 295bhp
Torque: 353Nm
Price: Dh155,000
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LAST 16 DRAW
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What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Mercedes-GP Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez; Renault Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr; Williams Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa / Robert Kubica / Paul di Resta; McLaren Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Toro Rosso TBA; Haas F1 Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber TBA
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
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WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
THE SPECS
Engine: Four-cylinder 2.5-litre
Transmission: Seven-speed auto
Power: 165hp
Torque: 241Nm
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Transmission: Eight-speed auto
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- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
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- Price: Not announced yet
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Brief scores:
Manchester City 3
Aguero 1', 44', 61'
Arsenal 1
Koscielny 11'
Man of the match: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 4 (Mount 18',Werner 44', Hudson-Odoi 49', Havertz 85')
Morecambe 0
