Chapeau!

             

 

The Sands have cleared and the results are in from the Tour of Qatar. What did we learn? BMC is good in the Team TT, Cavendish is super-fast, and Qatar is a flat, sandy place. The European Tour also kicked off with Etoile-Besseges, the Challenge Mallorca Series, and the Tour of Mediterranean. So here’s your weekly “tip of the hat, wag of the finger”.

Chapeau! to Mark Cavendish. The Manx Missile dominated the Tour of Qatar. Early on it seemed as though the race belonged to Team BMC but Cav won the final four stages, took the time bonuses and eventually the overall and the Golden Jersey. The “Fastest Man on Two Wheels” showed that he is still able to win a sprint without a lead-out, however the BoDog may disagree, and that OPQS, with the Dutch Champion, Niki Terpstra, aka the Terpinator, can provide a wicked train to the finish.

Chapeau! to BMC Team Time Trial Squad. BMC, under the leadership of the young American Taylor Phinney, were the fastest team in Qatar. Phinney continues to impress with his ability to TT and his ability to be a leader in only his second year on the Pro Tour. Look for this squad, with Phinney, to be in the Pink Jersey following the stage 2 TTT at the Giro. Discussion topic: Phinney nickname? Comments in the post below.....

Chapeau! to Brent Bookwalter. The “Librarian” took the first stage of Qatar and maintained his lead through stage 2 as part of the Phinney led BMC train. I always love when an American wins in Europe, er… Asia.

Chapeau! to Alejandro Valverde. Balaverde won his first race of 2013 at the Mallorca Challenge. He showed his strength by riding away from the field; certainly a promising sign for El Imbatido, Movistar, as well as Team Dirty Sanchez p/b Taco. Balaverde talked about starting this season off more slowly than last but this win shows that The Bullet is primed for another big year.

Chapeau! to Thomas Lofkvist. The man from Gotland won his first race since 2009 by being the most consistent along the southern coast of France. He did not win a stage but he was at the front every day, TT’d well enough, and took home the yellow polka-dotted leader's Jersey and the first win for the newly founded Swiss squad, Team IAM.

Others deserving of a “tip of the hat” include Leigh Howard for winning two of the Trofeo’s at Mallorca and Bryan Coquard, the Europcar sprinter, who won two stages at the Etoile-Besseges. Look out for the former U23 World Champion. He’s a quick one!

I am changing the week’s contra-performance to the “Schleck of the Week” in honor of the pride of Volpe, Andy Schleck. This dude is a joke! Tour de France, more like Tour de Farce! (pretty sure I got that from a Lance headline) Check back to the Team Wiskota homepage to watch the ticker grow as Andy has not won a race in 572 days and has not finished a race in 296. Epically, massively bad!

Forza!