Stage set for Royal Air Maroc Cycling League

DOHA:  A new cycling series aimed at capturing the two-wheel interest in Qatar kicks off tomorrow, organisers said yesterday.
The Royal Air Maroc Cycling League will start at Al Thakira Youth Centre and ends at Ras Laffan, Secretary General of Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF) Ahmed Al Hemaidi said yesterday.
The first leg starts and ends on the same day.
The 10-leg series - supported by Qatar Cyclists (QC) and Qatar Chain Reaction (QCR) - will see events being held with a gap of two or three weeks with the league officially culminating in April next year.
“With this new series, our target is to make a statement on healthy living in the country since we have a huge fan base in cycling. We want more and more people to take up cycling,” Al Hemaidi said yesterday.
“Cycling is well established sport in Qatar. “We have our national team that has done extremely well in the region for many years. We saw the passion for the sport at the UCI World Road Championships that concluded on Sunday.”
The men’s competitions will be held in three classes whereas the female riders will compete in two categories, Andrej Filip, Technical Secretary, QCF, revealed.
“This is the first league of its kind for cycling fans in Qatar,” Filip said. “This is the best time to launch this league since we saw a fantastic week of cycling during the UCI worlds,” he added.
“The new league will take riders to all corners of the country over a course of five or six months. We will break for the holiday season in December and then February when we have the Tour of Qatar,” he said.
“Each race will accord points to the top riders. And the riders will have to accumulate points for every race they compete in. The riders with the top tally at the end of the league will be declared a champion.
“The top riders will be given air tickets by Royal Air Maroc who are the sponsors of this league,” he said. Filip said QCF will provide logistical support to riders as will QCR and QC.
Dr Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, representing Qatar Cyclists, said: “Qatar Cyclists is a non-profitable organization which was established in April 2013 by a group of Qatari riders who have a special love of cycling.”
He added: “In January 2014, the group was acknowledged and supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and later named as ‘Qatar Cyclists Centre’. Our main interest is to promote cycling within Qatar and among all residents in the country, with a special focus on Qataris,” Al Kuwari said.
“We are happy to be part of this league and we will provide logistical and promotional support to the project,” he said.
Chairman of Qatar Chain Reaction Ben Keane said: “Initially we formed a small group of cycling enthusiasts, riding at Corniche. The group used to meet at a garage in Al Khor.”
He added: “We were 10 guys to start with and now we race with 150 or more people. We have grown exponentially. ‎We had no direction though we were growing. We are on social media with more than 2200 members on FB. We are pretty certain that with this league in place we will see more cyclists taking up the sport seriously.”
Filip said: “We would like to thank Qatar Cyclists and Qatar Chain Reaction. Then there are sponsors like Go Sport, Al Rayyan Water and Carbon Wheels. ‎We didn’t expect such huge response.
“The interest in our league has exploded maybe because of the cycling worlds. We have to accommodate as many riders as possible. Some dates of league have not been confirmed. Sometimes the national team riders maybe travelling so we may change the dates. Mostly the races will be held on Fridays,” Filip said.