A look at
who’s racing hard this week…
Tour of Qatar
The UCI Asia
Tour is admittedly a pretty weak pro tour.
However, a few races, such as the ToQ, punch above their weight
class. With nary a hill in sight (there
isn’t even a KOM competition) this has historically been a race for the sprinters. It’s all about time bonuses in the
desert. However, it should be noted that
the second day is a short team time trial so whoever brings the best TT team
may just take this. The desert backdrop
can make for a bit of a boring cycling spectacle, but with a little wind and sand this race turns into a strong man competition. And when it comes to strong men one person
comes to mind…
That’s right
Volpe’s heart and soul, Fabian Cancellera, will be starting his season in the
sand of Qatar. If Spartacus claims first
blood in the TTT he could have a shot at winning. Volpe’s best option here, three time winner
Tom Boonen, is out with some sort of gangrene of the arm. Hopefully that doesn’t mess up the rest of
his season too much. With American
strongman Phinney and sprint favorite Cavendish rounding out his team, Volpe
looks to get on the board this week.
The only
serious threat to Volpe comes from Gregario Forza and his strong man
squad. Boassen Hagen brings his classics
squad to the high deserts of Arabia.
Depending on the TTT he might go for a win here. Juan Antonio Flecha has a chance in
everything he enters. Stay close in the
sprints and this man will podium.
Other riders
Taco: Van Avermaet and Degenkolb
Guillaume:
Haussler and Terpstra
Dynamic: Thomas
Fujarky:
Sorry bud
It has just
come to my attention that Degenkolb is slated to start this race. Will this be the first of many head to head
battles between the Manx Missile and Das Kolb?
Do the weird named sprinters (Nacer Bouhanni, Yauheni Hutarovich) take a
stage? Does some guy named Wouter Mol take his second ToQ victory? All will be revealed as the gladiators of the sprints battle it out under the relentless Qatari sun. Are you not entertained?!
No comments:
Post a Comment