- Cycling as a sport, as a hobby, and as a recreation,
is just something that's opened up to everybody,
and I think that's one of the nice things about Dubai
is that you find yourself becoming a big family.
And Dubai welcomes everything like that.
(bright music)
(wheel spinning)
The wind blowing, and it's raising your heart rate up.
Everything else just starts to calm down.
You're just out there, completely you on your own,
there's a wash of calm that just comes over you.
(bright music)
- My name is Mark Beaumont,
and I'm an endurance athlete with the current world record
for cycling around the planet.
Seeking adventures and finding stories
is what I'm most passionate about.
(motorcycle revs)
Ever since I can remember,
I've had that sense of curiosity about the world.
(splash)
This time I've come to Dubai.
Today I'm meeting Stewart to find out how Dubai's
cycling community is growing.
- When you get out in the morning on the Al Qudra
cycle track and the sun rises over the desert,
there's just that palette of oranges and blues
reflecting through,
and it's so quiet and so serene out there
that I don't think that there's many places on Earth
that are as beautiful or as picturesque
to go out and ride.
As it is now to what it was eight nine years ago,
an immense change.
Now we have probably what is the most iconic
cycling route in the world.
- What a dream as a bike rider,
saying can we build you a cycle track in the desert?
- Seven eight years ago, there was a handful of us
out here on Al Qudra.
Now on a Friday or Saturday morning,
I'd say there are thousands of people out here.
- So what's the plan from here?
- So now we're gonna go and find some hills
out in Hatta, the Hajj mountain.
You can see what the hills in Dubai look like.
- Superb, let's do it.
(mystical music)
Do you see more and more riders out here,
or do they tend to stick close to the city?
- So good because it is a nice different challenge
to people to come out to the mountains.
You think you're gonna be the only one when you get here,
and yeah, good couple hundred riders out in a group.
- I'm used to the highlands of Scotland,
but these are certainly drier rockier
At this time of day, you can kinda see the way the light
is starting to change and sort of cast those deep shadows.
- I think you're gonna have to take a big deep breath now.
Alley oop!
- Deep breath
(breathing)
It's another world up from the desert.
(upbeat music)
Do you also kinda find that cycling gives people
a different perspective on Dubai because a lot of people,
if they've not been here, or maybe they've been on holiday,
will just picture that.
- There's so many things that happen outside
of the vibrant city that is Dubai.
You're a stone's throw away from a hustling bustle
of a vibrant city.
You're a stone's throw away out into the desert
to go and cycle or up to Hatta Mountains to go play
in the mountains.
The lakes out on Al Qudra,
the cycle track, the desert safaris,
the camping that goes out,
it's just an amazing place to live.
- Superb, let's crack on.
Year on year, Dubai changes insanely fast,
the infrastructure, the build,
certainly when it comes to cycling,
I mean I've seen it in my world as a professional
bike rider.
In the last ten years, that's just exploded
in popularity globally.
And here in Dubai, it's been matched with building
of cycle tracks and huge investment and events
popping up all over the place.
I can see through spending quality time with Stewart,
he's just passionate about the sport.
He loves sharing that.
To land here and see somebody who is so ingrained
in the culture and trying to make a change,
to this great place to ride.
(tone)