This brought back some memories, absolutely. A place not known for bicycles but interested in notions of healthy living and reducing carbon emissions, ready to be convinced that cycling is a good thing, somehow or other … bringing in a professional race over a series of days, and everyone sorta gawking at it, and some of them complaining about road closures, and then the competition ends up being dull.

The Redlands Bicycle Classic!

Thirty years ago, sure.

But in this case?

The inaugural Dubai Tour!

Dubai being involved, a place where only the best gets any notice, the first Dubai Tour actually had a fair share of prominent cyclists.

Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel, Tony Martin, Vicenzo Nibali … guys who have or will do some damage at the grand tours.

The early Redlands Bicycle Classic was lucky to get a half-dozen semi-significant teams, and was a three-day event for a while, there at the start. (It got up to six stages, and now seems back down to four.)

For a couple of reasons, some of the world’s leading teams arrived in Dubai, for the first Dubai Tour, a four-day event.

1. The weather in these parts, in February, which is mild and good for training — while most of Europe is wet and cold. Good for training.

2. And they got paid.

So, this first Dubai Tour sent me back to when the first Redlands Classic went down, and the sort of puzzlement and amazement at the whole notion. Mine, back then; lots of people in the UAE, now.

Paul Radley of The National did a nice job of summing up the confusion and disbelief of the first day, which began near a prominent Dubai landmark, the World Trade Center.

That first race was a time trial, won by Taylor Phinney, son of the 1986 Redlands Classic winner Davis Phinney.(Who has Parkinson’s, which I didn’t know till looking this up. David Phinney was part of the generation, which included the far more prominent Greg LeMond, which first took U.S. cyclists to prominence.)

Then came three road races, including one that did a lot of turning about in Dubai proper, on a weekday, which seemed to boggle the minds of many.

(Dubai fairly often is a traffic nightmare, and with road closures for the cyclists, it got only moreso, and more than 35 schools closed on Thursday rather than deal with additional traffic.)

So, the final three races, which included one deep into the desert and included a few hills, were won by Marcel Kittle, but the 12-second bulge Taylor Phinney earned back on Day 1 by winning the time trial was enough to give him the overall victory — because he finished in the pack that finished right with Kittle for Stages 2, 3 and 4.

And this reminded me of Early Redlands, too, the lack of realization that some serious climbing is necessary to break up the parade of riders.

I have suggested a stage next year with Jebel Hafeet in it — the tallest mountain in the UAE, at 4,098 feet. Running the peleton up that a time or two would break things up, I promise.

May not happen, though, because the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi (where Jebel Hafeet is located, outside the city of Al Ain) are not always good about sharing.

Redlands eventually settled on a stage that went back through Beaumont and up into the San Bernardino Mountains, ending at more than 4,000 feet, and that generally produced the winner. But at least it didn’t come on Day 1 of the competition.

Or didn’t back then, when I was paying attention to it.

So, Dubai has a bike race. Kinda revolutionary. To most people here, rich or poor, bicycles represent danger from motorists, and tend to be ridden only by the lowest-paid workers, and only for short distances.

This could be a game change. Bike lanes in Dubai!

Well, probably not any time soon, but the first step has been taken.