Racing in the Middle East - Inside the Tour of Sharjah
Mauritian rider Aurélien De Comarmond shares his insight into the race as ProTeams clash with a plethora of national squads
Since its relaunch in 2022, the 2.2 Tour of Sharjah in the UAE has become the starting point for the annual series of UCI racing in the Middle East, which ends in a few weeks time with the WorldTour-level UAE Tours for men and women.
With three ProTeams, a WorldTour development squad and most of the best Asian Continental teams present, the 2025 edition was the highest calibre that this race has ever seen.
The five-day stage race takes in a range of terrain, with two sprint days, two days in the steep hills and a short time-trial. Sharjah itself is a city just north of Dubai, but this race contains everything that the region north and east of Dubai can offer, in between the two mountain peaks of Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafeet often seen in the UAE Tour.
With Burgos Burpellet BH, Wagner Bazin WB and Team Solution Tech-Vini Fantini all present and looking for UCI points, attention was all on the professional teams with their bigger-name riders. UAE Gen Z also brought a good squad of prospects, including Abdullah Jasim Al-Ali, the team’s best Emirati rider, who would finish the race in the top-10.
Aside from the other Continental teams, ten national squads came to the Tour of Sharjah alongside five other club teams. A massive 29 teams were at the race in total, with six riders each. Below, we will get the in-race perspective from Mauritian youngster Aurélien de Comarmond, who had an active race.
Races like the Tour of Sharjah are important for the globalisation of the sport of cycling. It’s one of the rare occurrences throughout the season that professional teams will line up against riders from nations as varied as Iraq, Rwanda, Oman, Mauritius and the Philippines. It may only be January, but the Tour of Sharjah is the best opportunity many of these riders will get all season to test themselves against, and make themselves known to, some bigger teams.
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Stage one was won by the victor of last year’s queen stage, Mario Aparicio. A new course for the opener ended on the steep slopes of the short climb up to Al Fujayrah. Aparicio stamped early authority on the race by winning solo ahead of Lorenzo Quartucci and Jambaljamts Sainbayar, who were just ahead of another chasing group behind.
Stage two was the first big sprint day. It was won by Serbian former Bahrain Victorious rider Dusan Rajovic, ahead of Algeria’s Yacine Hamza and Davide Persico of Wagner-Bazin WB. As an aside, there was also an impressive ride here from Iraqi rider Wehbi Abdullah, who finished 7th, perhaps the best result by a rider from Iraq for several years - that story is for another day.
On Stage three it was time for a 11.6km mostly flat time-trial with a small kicker at the end. Frenchman Quentin Bezza was the winner for Wagner-Bazin WB less than a second ahead of Rein Taaramäe, competing in his first race for Japanese team Kinan. The Estonian cut Aparicio’s lead to one second in the GC with the monster climb up to Khorfakkan to decide the GC looming.
Stage four - the big one in terms of GC. Aparicio looked like he would be a contender coming into the stage, but in the end he lost more than eight minutes on the final climb. The stage was won solo by New Zealander Josh Kench, riding for Chinese Continental team Li Ning Star (a team which has recruited excellently over the winter, also including Simon Pellaud in its roster). Kench beat fellow Kiwi Josh Burnett, riding for new team Burgos, by 26 seconds to take a big GC lead. Dutchman Adne van Engelen, now racing for Terengganu, was third. There was an excellent ride by Abdulla Jasim Al-Ali who was eighth, just behind Taaramäe, a huge improvement on last year when he finished 39th on this climb in a weaker field. Mongolian Burgos rider Sainbayar was 9th, ahead of Rwanda’s Moise Mugisha in 10th.
Stage five
The final stage was another sprint day, won by big sprinting prospect Davide Stella. The UAE Gen Z rider is highly thought of in Italy and is being talked up as the nation’s next big sprint star. Rajovic was second this time, with Persico finishing off the podium in third. Kench clinched the GC ahead of Burnett and Taaramäe.
A couple of other riders to pick out… 19-year-old South African Kieran Gordge had a great race, riding for Portuguese club team Obidos. He was 13th in the first two stages and looks a decent talent to keep an eye on. There was a good fourth place on stage two for Malaysian Wan Abdul Rahman Hamdan, riding for Terengganu. The second Emirati rider for UAE Gen Z, Mohammad Al Mutaiwei, was an impressive sixth on the time-trial day.
Inside the race with Aurélien de Comarmond
The Mauritius national team have sent a squad to the Tour of Sharjah in each of the last two editions. It’s an important opportunity for this burgeoning cycling nation to race against top opposition and prepare themselves for the tests to come on the Africa Tour later in the season.
Despite being only 22, Aurélien de Comarmond, is one of the squad’s more experienced members, having competed in France over the last two years, including getting a ride at the Tour de l’Avenir last year with the UCI World Cycling Centre team. He’s developing well as a rider for the flatter days and will compete for Chinese Continental team The Hurricane & Thunder CT this season, stepping up to join a UCI team for the first time.
After starting off the race with a long day in the breakaway on stage one, De Comarmond finished 14th on the stage three time-trial to kick off the season in encouraging fashion ahead of bigger goals to come. The Mauritian shared his insight into the racing with Global Peloton:
“My goal was [to do] some kilometres before the Tour of Algerie in February and taking pleasure on the bike,” De Comarmond said after the final stage about his goals coming into the race.
Speaking about his day in the breakaway on stage one, he said: “It was a hard stage, very nice to be in the break and doing some kilometres in front with big guys. Missing some legs for the final but still happy about this day.”
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De Comarmond was pleased with his time-trial result on stage three, but hoped for more on the sprint stages on days two and five. It was a rare opportunity for the Mauritian team to race in the desert, which can be a constant flicking between high-stress in the wind and a slow pace as the peloton take the foot off the gas.
“It’s quite nice I need to say cause it’s a different type of racing,” he said of racing in this part of the world. “[It] can be more relaxed, but when there is big wind, [you] need to be very focussed.”
After Sharjah, De Comarmond will head to the Tour d’Algerie next month with the national team before making his way to China. His biggest goal for the year is to win the Mauritius national championships.
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Great report on a race I knew nothing about before