News

With the Ladies’ Tour of Qatar already underway, the men’s eleventh version of the race will hear the gun on Sunday. This year three Canadians will start the windy, echelons-and-sand Middle Eastern race that’s traditionally won by sprinters.

Dominique Rollin’s FDJ squad has a new co-sponsor this year in the form of Big Mat. Svein Tuft will experience his first race with his new team, the Australian upstarts of GreenEdge. And wily vet Michael Barry will be working hard to get Sky’s Mark Cavendish to the line.

Lotto-Belisol’s Andre Greipel, whose 2012 campaign has got off to a rollicking start, has had to withdraw at a late hour because of a nasty stomach bug.

This leaves the favourites group of Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma - Quick Step) gunning for his fourth title, defending champion Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), Cavendish and young riders like Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) to battle it out in the Persian Gulf.

The Tour of Qatar runs from February 5th to the 10th.