The 2022 World Tour season officially opens this week with the UAE Tour.

Last year, Tadej Pogachar won the overall race for his home team, UAE Team Emirates.

The Slovenian will lead a full UAE squad that includes 2021 third-place finisher Joao Almeida, climbers George Bennett and Rafau Mayka, and sprinter Pascal Ackermann, who will be looking for another overall win this year.

Cycling News will bring you full reports, results, news, interviews, and analysis throughout the race, and you can find out how to watch the UAE Tour via live stream using ExpressVPN (opens in new tab).

Despite boasting the strongest team on the start list, UAE Team Emirates will face some stiff competition during the seven-day race.

Adam Yates, who defeated Pogachar in 2020 and finished second last year, will lead the Ineos Grenadiers, which includes time trial world champion Filippo Ganna and star sprinter Elia Viviani.

In Bora-Hansgrohe, Alexandre Vlasov continued his strong start to the season by winning the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. Jai Hindley will also compete, and sprinter Sam Bennett will make his second debut.

Pero Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Romain Bardet (Team DSM), David de la Cruz (Astana Kazakstan), Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo Visma), Fausto Masnada (Quick Step - Alfavin), Tour of Oman winner Jan Hilt (Intermarke-Wanty-Gobert) and others will compete as GC men.

Top sprinters such as Mark Cavendish (Quick Step-Alphavinyl), Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ), Yasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Phoenix), and Dylan Groenewegen (Bike Exchange-Jayco) will will take on Viviani and Bennett.

Four of the seven stages, stages 1, 2, 5, and 6, will give these riders a chance to battle on level ground. Stage 3 will feature a 9 km time trial in Ajman, while stages 4 and 7 will feature summit finishes in Jebel Jais and Jebel Hafit.

For more information on how to watch the 2022 UAE Tour, read here.

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The UAE Tour will be broadcast live in the UK and Europe on GCN+ (opens in new tab), Eurosport Player (opens in new tab) and Discovery+ (opens in new tab).

The races will also be broadcast on GCN+ in North America for $8.99 per month or $49.99 for an annual subscription.

Live local coverage will be provided by a live stream on Dubai Sports (opens in new tab). Other coverage of the race will be provided by Rai Sport (open in new tab) in Italy and Sporza (open in new tab) in Belgium.

If you live outside the broadcast area or are out of the country on vacation and the live stream is geographically restricted, you can work around this by using a "virtual private network" (VPN) for your laptop, tablet, or cell phone to simulate access as if you were in your home country. This can be done.

Our sister site TechRadar has tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number one VPN currently available as Express VPN.With ExpressVPN (opens in new tab), you can use your Smart TV, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, tablet, and many other devices at once.