On one Sunday morning in November, Sheikh Zayed Road — the twelve-lane motorway that is the spine of Dubai, lined by the towers the city is photographed for — is closed to traffic and given to cyclists. Tens of thousands ride it at dawn, with a shorter family route at Downtown.
No attendance figure is collected in this pass.
It is free and requires registration, and bicycles can be hired on site.
The reason it belongs in a festival register rather than a sports one is what it does to the city: closing that road is the single most visible intervention the municipality makes in a year, and the photographs of an empty Sheikh Zayed Road full of bicycles are the image Dubai now uses to sell its winter.
PlanningOne Sunday morning inside the Fitness Challenge; free with registration, and the road closes before dawn.
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Computed from the recurrence rule we record for this entry, not copied from a listing. A date marked ~ comes from a calendar conversion and the observance may fall a day or two either side.