The 2020 UAE Tour started with plenty of reasons for excitement. With Chris Froome finally back in the peloton, the Middle East stage race was meant to be an early season showdown between many of the 2020 Tour de France hopefuls, but it ended in chaos.

The race was cancelled after stage 5 due to two staff members of a participating team testing positive for the coronavirus. Riders, staff and media were confined to their hotel rooms, while the entire race underwent testing. 

The quarantine lasted two days for the majority of those involved, but four days later, Cofidis, Gazprom-RusVelo and Groupama-FDJ remain in quarantine. UAE Team Emirates has also chosen to stay in the country as a precautionary measure.

The five stages that were raced did reveal how GC riders are stacking up against each other early in the season.

Adam Yates Soars

Adam Yates was declared winner of the UAE Tour after stage 5, and rightfully so. The race’s first mountain top finish on the Jebel Hafeet climb was dominated by the British rider, who dispensed of Alexey Lutsenko and Tadej Pogacar to win by over a minute. Stage five also finished on top of Jebel Hafeet, where Yates finished on the same time as Lutsenko and Pogacar.

Yates won the 2020 UAE Tour by one minute and one second ahead of UAE Team Emirate’s Tadej Pogacar, a result which almost certainly would have remained unchanged had the two remaining sprint stages not been cancelled. 

Primoz Roglic won the 2019 UAE Tour in similarly dominant fashion. However, by the time Roglic arrived at the Giro d’Italia, he appeared to be tired, suggesting that he may have pushed his fitness a bit too far early in the season. After taking much of the mid season away from racing, Roglic rallied to win the Vuelta a Espana. 

Adam Yates has a long way to go before his goal of the 2020 Tour de France. He has proven to be a step ahead of his competition in the mountains thus far, but whether he can hold onto that form until July remains to be seen.  

Parity Amongst Sprinters

The cancellation of the final two stages of the UAE Tour omitted two big sprint finishes. While Caleb Ewan won the points jersey, the sprinting hierarchy was not as clear cut as the GC situation.

Pascal Ackermann was quickest on stage one, Caleb Ewan was dominant on stage two’s Hatta Dam finish, and Dylan Groenewegen won stage four. Fernando Gaviria was the biggest name sprinter to miss out on a win, while the likes of Sam Bennett, Mark Cavendish, and Arnaud Demaure would have also welcomed two extra opportunities to stand on top of the podium. 

Coronavirus Threatens 2020 Season

The Coronavirus’ appearance in the UAE Tour turned many people’s concerns into reality. As COVID-19 nears being labeled a pandemic, the fate of the international peloton hangs in a tenuous limbo.

The virus’ presence in Italy has already drawn spring races such as Strade Bianche and Milano-Sanremo into question, while the feasibility of grand tours remains another question entirely. 

The abandonment of the seven stage UAE Tour does not bode well for the three week grand tours, in which riders push their bodies and immune systems further than in any other race, all while traveling across an entire country.

As the spring classics get underway, the role the coronavirus will play in the 2020 cycling season may become more defined, but for now, race organizers and athletes are taking it day-by-day.