Marcato moves into sports director role at UAE Team Emirates

UAE Team Emirates has announced changes to its support team for 2022, including the addition of Marco Marcato who will be stepping into the role of sports director following his retirement after 17 years as a professional cyclist. The former head sports director Allan Peiper will also serve in a new role as sporting and technical advisor.

Peiper joined UAE Team Emirates in 2019, moving across after six years as sporting manager with BMC Racing, but stepped aside in April that year to undergo chemotherapy for prostate cancer. He continued to take time off during the COVID-19 shutdown, remaining in his home country of Australia as he self-isolated and recovered. He was able to work as the team director at this year’s Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix, but due to his health issues the team has moved Peiper to the advisory role.

“Good results from the riders on the road are built on a strong pillar of support staff and a lot of tireless work behind the scenes,” said CEO and team principal Mauro Gianetti.

“We have assembled a good group of people with great specialty in their field and we trust and hope that we can bring it all together for another strong year in 2022.”

Marcato rode his last five seasons with UAE Team Emirates, tackling seven Grand Tours in that time. The Italian's final UCI race was the Tour de Pologne, where he rode in support of a fourth place GC finish for Diego Ulissi. His pro cycling career covered nine years at WorldTour level, with a third place on a stage at the 2009 Vuelta a España and victories at the Tour de Vendée in 2011 and Paris-Tours in 2012.

Gianetti will continue the overall management of the team along with Andrea Agostini, COO, and Joxean Matxin Fernandez, team manager. Jeroen Swart will take up the new position of performance coordinator as Adriano Rotunno fills his role as the head of medical.

UAE Team Emirates are also making additions to the coaching staff with trainers Didac Navarro and Kevin Poulton while David Herrero Llorente will specialise in biomechanics, the team said in a media release.

The rider roster for 2022 has also been strengthened for stage racing, and to support Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, with the additions of Marc Soler from Movistar, João Almeida and Alvaro Hodeg from Deceununick-QuickStep, Pascal Ackermann from Bora-Hansgrohe, George Bennett from Jumbo-Visma and Alexys Brunel from Groupama-FDJ.