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Any cycling fan walking through the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport last week might have done a double-take.
“Oh, there’s a former Paris-Roubaix winner.”
“Look honey, there’s a Tour de France stage winner.”
Entire teams plodded through Terminal 3 all bound for Saudi Arabia for the third edition of the Saudi Tour.
Yet these professional cyclists weren’t flying business class. The entire entourage piled into a charter flight, and some six hours later landed in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula.
“The flight was OK. It was organized well, and there was a flight before ours and we didn’t have to carry the bikes,” said Cofidis rider Max Walscheid . “It’s also nice to have only one hotel. These races in the Middle East also have nice weather and they are well organized. The riders like them in general.” Also read: The spectacular expanses around AlUla once saw caravans of camel trains hauling commodities on the old spice trail.Flash forward to 2023, and though there were still a few camels wandering around, the only caravan last week was the race entourage of 200 riders and staffers parachuting in for five days of racing.The scene repeated itself across airports all winter. Where there is a road, there is a race Riders from Euskaltel-Euskadi find shade before a start of a stage at the Saudi Tour. (Photo: Charly Lopez/ASO) […]
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