| BY ERIK TRINIDAD It was still dark when I arrived at a parking lot in Dubai’s Meydan district just before dawn and heard the familiar Muslim call to prayer coming from the speakers of a distant minaret. As the resonance of the age-old chants filled the sky, I noticed more and more individuals coming from their cars, gradually assembling at the same spot — only it was not for any religious reason. Here, at Dubai’s rendezvous point for urban cycling, away from the glittering skyscrapers and luxury hotels of glossy magazine spreads, the local, Spandex-clad cycling community gathered with their bicycles for another type of daily pre-dawn ritual: to bike the 8.4 km (5.2 mile) Nad Al Sheba track (or the DxBike loop), multiple times until after the sunrise — and all before heading to the office. | 