PARIS: Tadej Pogacar believes he has the right team in place to help him fight for a third Tour de France triumph with an eight-rider UAE roster confirmed on Friday.
“It’s already my fifth time coming to the Tour and I’m really excited about it,” said Pogacar, a back-to-back winner in 2020 and 2021 who finished runner-up in the past two editions to Jonas Vingegaard.
“We’ve worked really hard all year as a team to prepare for this. We’ve spent a lot of time together as a group training at altitude and put in a lot of hours in the saddle. We’re in a really good place as a group.”
Pogacar, 25, will also be bidding for the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double, last achieved by the late Marco Pantani in 1998, with this year’s Tour starting in Florence on June 29.
The Slovenian will be accompanied by Britain’s Adam Yates, Spaniards Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler, France’s Pavel Sivakov, Portuguese Joao Almeida, Belgian Tim Wellens and Germany’s Nils Politt.
“We know what we have to do to support Tadej,” said Yates, third in last year’s Tour de France.
“We’re aiming for the win and we know if things go our way it’s possible so it’s just a matter of staying focused and pulling together all the way to Nice.”
Ayuso, winner of the Tour of the Basque Country and third in the 2022 Vuelta, and Almeida, third in last year’s Giro, will compete in their first Tour de France.
Pogacar confident in his UAE team to deliver third Tour de France title
https://arab.news/53k7h
Pogacar confident in his UAE team to deliver third Tour de France title
Inaugural Kidzink Pearl Cup wraps up at Dubai Offshore Club
- Sailors aged 8-18 competed in the Optimist Coached, Optimist, ILCA 4, 29er and RS Feva classes
DUBAI: The inaugural Kidzink Pearl Cup wrapped up in Dubai after welcoming more than 100 youth sailors from 17 countries for one of the Middle East’s first international open youth sailing regattas.
Held from Dec. 15-21 at Dubai Offshore Sailing Club with the support of Dubai Sports Council, the Kidzink Pearl Cup brought together sailors aged 8-18 to compete in the Optimist Coached, Optimist, ILCA 4, 29er and RS Feva classes.
Backed by global educational design company Kidzink as title sponsor and strategic partner, the event combined four days of competitive racing with ideal windy conditions, with three days of Olympic-level coaching delivered by an international coaching team, giving young sailors the chance to train and race in competitive and challenging conditions alongside peers from different countries and sailing cultures.
The young sailors also took part in interactive onshore sessions developed with Kidzink’s research team, with the event putting the focus on leadership, inclusivity and clean-water awareness.
Charlotte Borghesi, founder and general manager of Kidzink, said: “The energy throughout the week was incredible. You could see learning happening in real time, friendships forming on the dock and young sailors growing in confidence every day.
The Kidzink Pearl Cup is about more than racing, it’s about creating an environment where young people feel inspired, supported and excited to learn.”
A two-time world champion sailor herself, Borghesi brings first-hand experience to the event, having made history in 2023 as the first female helmswoman to win the SB20 World Championship, followed by her team’s victory at the SB20 Women’s World Sailing Championship in Singapore in 2025.
Alongside the racing program, sailors took part in Kidzink’s interactive learning sessions. The UAE sessions built on work first piloted at the Kidzink-supported 29er Class European and World Championships earlier this year.
Local talent featured strongly throughout the week, with members of the DOSC racing squad lining up alongside international competitors. Among them were 14-year-old Chloe Montanet and 12-year-old Edward West.
In the Optimist Coached fleet, first place was claimed by Lev Ryashin (RUS), followed by Matteo Bertucci (ITA) in second and Gonzalo Montero (ESP) in third.
In the Optimist class Jean-Luc Herve (UAE) topped the podium, followed by Xuan Ya Tong (KSA) in second, and Miquel Rossello-Collinge (ESP) rounding out the podium.
The ILCA 4 title went to Fynley Britton (GBR), with Indraneel Roy (IND), and Katyayani Kaushik (IND) completing the podium.
In the 29er fleet, Dominic West and Fynley Britton took top honours, followed by Lily Britton and Matteo Gardenghi in second place with Noah Fisk and Alex Simmonds third.
The RS Feva Coached podium consisted of Ameya Rahul Nair and Arya Khanna in first, Miles Wilson-Brown and Noah Kahlon second, and Finlay Henderson and Rayan Abdallah third.
“Our work in sailing reflects our broader mission to design and create educational environments and experiences where young people thrive,” Borghesi added. “The Kidzink Pearl Cup is just the beginning of much more to come.”
