In Oman, young people are starting to dream about cycling and the Tour of Oman is their world championship. I admit that before leaving for this trip, I had struggled to believe the many stories brought by other colleagues, but it took just one day in the Aso caravan to realize how much love for this sport can ignite the Middle Eastern country. Among the many teams present at the competition, the small Omani national selection carves out a special role, living its small dream every day and trying to fight in the center of the group with all the tools at its disposal.

Landed in Oman, from the first day we were intrigued by this team, we tried to approach a president, a sports director and in the end we discovered that there is also a piece of Italy in that dream. At the helm of the Omani team is Maher Hasnaoui, a Tunisian professional cyclist from 2007 to 2022 who has behind him experiences of all kinds, including national titles won and major races contested. Among the under-23s, he raced in our country with the then Acqua e Sapone, fell in love with Italy and from that moment decided to learn the language and return as many times as possible. He was at the start of the Trentino Tour, the Coppi and Bartali - he even confided to us that he is an avid reader of tuttobiciweb - and we take the opportunity to be accompanied on a magical journey through the dreams and hopes of Omani cyclists.

Maher arrived in Oman thanks to some of his former teammates, they were looking for someone who could bring some experience to a country so far from cycling and that's how it all began. Now he is the sports director of the Omani selection, a great responsibility that hides an even greater work behind it, but above all a dream and a passion that become the engine of everything, even of the most impossible things. Cycling in Oman is not a popular sport, team sports like football, or athletics and swimming attract many athletes, some of whom have even participated in the Olympics.

"Cycling here in Oman is growing little by little, but there is still much to do, we are only at the beginning. Thanks to the birth of the Tour of Oman, people have started to be interested in this sport, to become passionate and try to ride a bicycle. Currently, we have 3 youth centers in various areas of Oman, in Sohar, Muscat and Nizwa where kids can start pedaling. The UCI and ASO have given us a great hand, they have provided us with bicycles and equipment, but it is still not enough. There are no structures, and above all, there are not many races to test our athletes, the gap with the 'cycling world' is still large," Maher Hasnoui explains to us, making us understand the desire of this country to pursue a dream that in some ways seems almost impossible.

Currently in Oman, there are about ten professional cyclists, there are local teams classified as elite and very small races that attract athletes from neighboring territories. There is also junior activity that tries to gather the many young people curious about this sport, every year there are more and more of them and the system is moving. The idea is to create better-equipped cycling schools, but above all real races for amateurs and juniors, to increase professional activity starting from the national team. Thanks to the constant support of ASO and UCI, some boys have managed to participate in a training camp in France and thus discover what is on the other side, but it is only a small slice of the cake.

What strikes us most about Maher Hasnoui's story is the way of considering the Tour of Oman, a kind of true world championship for which they prepare all year round trying to seize their opportunity. "For us, the Tour of Oman is everything, because it gives us the opportunity to make ourselves known to the world, but also to meet it. All the boys here dream of being able to race with professionals and at the Tour they have the opportunity to do so, they can pedal alongside superstars like Adam Yates or Steven Kruijswik who even wore the pink jersey, and for them it is a dream. People from home discover this sport, children become passionate seeing their compatriots in the breakaway, this is how all the magic is born," continues the former Tunisian athlete who every day encourages his boys to give their all, to risk, to do their best. And as he confides to us jokingly, it's not even easy to convince everyone to go in a breakaway, after all, when do you ever get the chance to pedal in the center of a peloton of this level?

It is magical what the Tour of Oman manages to do, which literally crosses and animates a country where cycling is slowly finding its place. Children on the roadside look with incredible eyes at the Europeans, some try to get closer, others point out to their father the muscles of those athletes who seem to have come from the future. As soon as they discover the bike, they begin to dream, to travel with their imagination trying to imagine themselves among the real professionals. Maher Hasnoui himself tells us that he does not know if all this will ever truly be achievable, the journey has just begun, but dreams are an incredible engine. And so, why not try?