Tom blew 'em up today in Al Khor Corniche in the first stage of the Tour of Qatar. The crosswinds tore the peloton to shreds and echelons were created and gaps were formed. The break or first echelon was a who's who of cycling with Spartacus, O'Grady, Renshaw, Haussler, Flecha, several others and of course Tom. With that amount of un-godly highly motivated horsepower no one was going to pull that back in. That's right, they stayed away and put a 5min gorge between them and the peloton.
Good to see Tom in the mix after a not-so-stellar year, with injuries and crashes. He is looking to be on form for the Classics, and Qatar with it's winds is a good tune-up for the rouleurs. Cav did start the stage today and finished about 12min down. I don't expect too much from Cav after getting banged-up, but who knows -he could be resting and looking to score a later stage. Just look at the top ten...That's firepower, pure unadulterated tarmac pounding wattage cranking horsepower.
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep Cycling Team
2 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Team Garmin-Cervelo
3 Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad
4 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek
5 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team
6 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Procycling
7 Dominique Rollin (Can) FDJ
8 Roger Hammond (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo
9 Andreas Klier (Ger) Team Garmin-Cervelo
10 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Leopard Trek
Challenge Mallorca
The UCI in its infinite wisdom nullified yesterdays results, so the race never happened. That is a kick to the midsection where your inseam and chamois meet. Sticking a radio ear bud into your ear and listening to your DS is a "new Sin" according to the UCI. Several riders and teams defied the ban on radios and therefore everyone was spanked with the nullification.
Today's stage got underway without any Cairo-like activities. Not much to see here folks, just move along. Tyler did put another notch in the belt, or did he? With the nullifying of yesterday's stage I guess he only has one win, the other will be an *. Philippe Gilbert did try a solo attack at 15k to go but was easily caught and put back into the peloton that amassed for the bunch sprint. That's when Tyler edged out the two HTC riders and got his second first win.
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| Photo: © Bettini |
1 Tyler Farrar (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 4:04:11
2 John Degenkolb (Ger) HTC-Highroad
3 Leigh Howard (Aus) HTC-Highroad
4 Klaas Lodewyck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
5 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Movistar Team
6 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Skil - Shimano
7 Daniel Schorn (Aut) Team Netapp 8 Robert Wagner (Ger) Leopard Trek
9 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Leopard Trek
10 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team
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