Global Riders to Watch: Saudi Tour 2022
[Image: Getty Images]
The Saudi Tour returns. The World Tour teams come to town to build some early season form.
This race is not just about the big guys though, a number of Asian Continental Teams arrive here and there are a few riders from the Middle East scattered amongst the World Tour pros. These guys may not win the Saudi Tour, but they are ones to watch from nations which we don’t often see represented at this level.
Mohd Harrif Saleh
33, Malaysia, Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team
Mohd Harrif Saleh is famous for retiring Max Walscheid from sprinting. At the 2020 Tour de Langkawi, Saleh beat Walscheid, Pelucchi and Minali to claim two stage wins from bunch sprints. Thinking about it, he probably retired Pelucchi and Minali from sprints too!
He has 27 UCI wins in his career - it would be a major shock if he were to claim another one this week. However, in this part of the world we get very messy sprints which can produce a surprise.
It would be sensational to see him take a win this week. A more realistic target would be for him to get a couple of top-tens in the flat stages.
Polychronis Tzortzakis
33, Greece, Kuwait Pro Cycling Team
Polychronis Tzortzakis is a five-time Greek national TT champ and two-time road champ. He puts out big watts and had a good end to the season in 2021, picking up a couple of stages in the Tour de la Guadeloupe. Tzortzakis also finished third in the Tour of Estonia last year among World Tour opposition. He has probably deserved to go pro at some point in his career but has instead ridden at Conti level for most of his time in the peloton.
The big Greek rouler will be going for the breakaway this week targeting the sprints jersey - separate to the points jersey in this race.
A few comments on Instagram suggest he might not be in the form he’d like to be though, unfortunately.
Ahmed Madan
21, Bahrain, Bahrain Victorious
Ahmed Madan is a bit of a long-term project for Bahrain Victorious. There is little on his palmares to suggest that he belongs in the World Tour, but the aim for him is to develop over time in an amazing professional environment so that one day Bahrain can have some competitive talent on the world-stage. They are not there yet, though..
Ahmed only rode one race with the team in 2021, the Tour de Hongrie. He finished the race, which is an achievement in itself, but never placed higher than 90th in a stage. The best we can hope for at the Saudi Tour is for Ahmed to get through the race, hopefully doing some work for his team-mates.
Yousef Mirza
33, UAE, UAE Team Emirates
Yousef Mirza has been around for a while now, this is his sixth year in the World Tour with UAE Team Emirates. It’s fair to say that he has a rough time racing the World Tour and high-level European races - Mirza DNF’ed eleven races last year. He enjoys racing at home though, 13th on GC in the Dubai Tour 2017 is his best result outside of National Championships. He got to that place on GC through spending time in the breakaway and picking up sprints.
Yousef has already started his season off strongly with a couple of decent results in the first two stages of the Tour of Sharjah. He DNS’ed stage 3 to join up with the team here.
Mirza is likely to be spending his time working for Costa and Gaviria this week.
Nur Aiman Mohd Zariff
24, Malaysia, Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team
Another one from the Malaysian team who gets an opportunity to ride with the top guys. If you follow the Asia Tour, you’ll know Zariff as a rider for the breakaways. His best result is winning the Mountain jersey at the Tour de Langkawi in 2020.
Zariff will be hoping to spend some time in the breakaway this week. If he can do that, it would be massive for the team.
Abdulhadi Alajmi
26, Kuwait, Kuwait Pro Cycling Team
Abdulhadi is probably the strongest Kuwaiti rider in this team. He built his experience last year, riding stage races in Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, France and Thailand. He claimed his best ever result with 10th at the Kahramanmaras GP in Turkey, making a strong front group on the uphill finish.
The whole team will be trying to get up the road this week, let’s hope we can see Alajmi at the front of the race.
Let’s look out for these riders and support them throughout the race!
Which riders do you think will shine at the Saudi Tour 2022?
