Tour of Qatar

Cavendish had a minor crash in training while preparing for his season debut in the Tour of Qatar

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Several WorldTour riders said they plan to meet with UCI president Pat McQuaid this week at the Tour of Oman to discuss the radio ban.

Stage 5:

• 1. Andrea Guardini, Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli, in 2h 44' 06"
• 2. Francesco Chicchi, Quick Step Cycling Team, at
• 3. Théo Bos, Rabobank Cycling Team, at 0:00
• 4. Dominique Rollin, FdJ, s.t.
• 5. Roger Kluge, Skil-Shimano, s.t.

• 1. Mark Renshaw, HTC-Highroad, in 15:31:04
• 2. Heinrich Haussler,Garmin-Cervélo, at 0:08
• 3. Daniele Bennati,Leopard-Trek, at 0:17
• 4. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Sky, at 0:26
• 5. Roger Hammond,Garmin-Cervélo, at 0:38

DOHA, Qatar ─ Australian Mark Renshaw (HTC-HighRoad) won the Tour of Qatar here Friday after the fifth and final stage was claimed by Italy's Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli).

Stage 4:

• 1. Mark Renshaw, HTC-Highroad, in 3:12:36
• 2. Daniele Bennati, Leopard-Trek, at
• 3. Tom Boonen, Quick Step, s.t.
• 4. Heinrich Haussler, Garmin-Cervelo, s.t.
• 5. Denis Galimzyanov, Katusha, s.t.

• 1. Mark Renshaw, HTC-Highroad, in 12h 47' 00"
• 2. Heinrich Haussler, Garmin-Cervelo, at
• 3. Daniele Bennati, Leopard-Trek, at 00:15
• 4. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Sky, at 00:24
• 5. Roger Hammond, Garmin-Cervelo, at 00:36

Stage 3

• 1. Heinrich Haussler, Team Garmin-Cervelo, 3h 28' 04
• 2. Mark Renshaw, HTC-Highroad, at 00:00
• 3. Daniele Bennati, Team Leopard-Trek, at 00:00
• 4. Dominique Rollin, Fdj, s.t.
• 5. Lars Boom, Rabobank Cycling Team, s.t.

• 1. Heinrich Haussler, Team Garmin-Cervelo, in 9:34:30
• 2. Mark Renshaw, HTC-Highroad, at 00:04
• 3. Daniele Bennati, Team Leopard-Trek, at 00:15
• 4. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Sky Procycling, at 00:18
• 5. Jérémy Hunt, Sky Procycling, at 00:28

Graham Watson captures the action on stage 3 of the 2011 Tour of Qatar.

Garmin-Cervélo’s Heinrich Haussler won the third stage of the Tour of Qatar Wednesday to take the race leader's jersey from three-time winner Tom Boonen (Quick Step).

Graham Watson captures the action at stage 2 of the 2011 Tour of Qatar.

• 1. Heinrich Haussler, Team Garmin - Cervelo, in 3:04:03
• 2. Daniele Bennati, Team Leopard-Trek, at s.t.
• 3. Denis Galimzyanov, Katusha Team, at s.t.
• 4. Théo Bos, Rabobank Cycling Team, at s.t.
• 5. Roger Kluge, Skil-Shimano, at s.t.

Tom Boonen said Monday that every year it gets a bit harder to win the Tour of Qatar, a race he's won three times.

Graham Watson shoots stage 1 of the 2011 Tour of Qatar.

Stage 1

• 1. Tom Boonen, Quick Step Cycling Team, in 2:59:29
• 2. Heinrich Haussler, Team Garmin - Cervelo, at s.t.
• 3. Mark Renshaw, Htc - Highroad, at s.t.
• 4. Daniele Bennati, Team Leopard-Trek, at s.t.
• 5. Graeme Brown, Rabobank Cycling Team, at s.t.

GC after stage 1

• 1. Tom Boonen, Quick Step Cycling Team, in 3:02:32
• 2. Mark Renshaw, HTC - Highroad, at 3:02:36
• 3. Fabian Cancellara, Team Leopard-Trek, at 3:02:40
• 4. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Sky Procycling, at 3:02:41
• 5. Heinrich Haussler, Team Garmin - Cervelo, at 3:02:43

Al KHOR CORNICHE, Qatar (VN) — Tom Boonen stretched out his long-unused sprinter legs to win the first stage of the Tour of Qatar on Monday and take the lead.

• 1. Lars Boom, Rabobank Cycling Team, in 03:07
• 2. Fabian Cancellara, Team Leopard-Trek, at 03:11
• 3. Tom Veelers, Skil-Shimano, at 03:12
• 4. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Sky Procycling, at 03:12
• 5. Alex Dowsett, Sky Procycling, at 03:13

Boom tells VeloNews that the Qatar peloton will follow the lead of riders at the Mallorca Challenge and demand the use of race radios before starting stage 1 on Monday.

Lars Boom (Rabobank) claims victory in the prologue of the Tour of Qatar.

2011 Tour of Qatar starting roster

The tenth edition of the Tour of Qatar was set to get under way Sunday afternoon with a 2.5km prologue at Doha's Cultural Village, a new civic area. The technical course features some (relatively smooth) cobbles and about a dozen turns.

Quick Step's Tom Boonen and HTC-HighRoad's Mark Cavendish head the field at the 10th Tour of Qatar, which begins in Doha on Sunday and promises some lively duels between the sport's top sprinters.

Fans hoping to see the professional debut of Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) will have to wait a little while longer. Phinney, the U.S. national time trial champion, announced on his blog Wednesday that he will miss his planned start at the Tour of Qatar due to a knee injury.

The American is pumped for Paris-Nice and the spring classics, an undecided on defending his world pursuit title

The demands of early season stage races like the Tours of Oman and Qatar have been given the thumbs-up by medal-winning stars at the world track cycling championships.

Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) scored his second win of the 2010 Tour of Qatar, outsprinting American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) on the final stage. Wouter Mol (Vaconsoleil) took the overall title.

At the Tour of Qatar, a two-man suicide breakaway on stage 2 ended up defining the entire event when the peloton did not chase until it was too late and Wouter Mol (Vacansoleil) and Geert Steurs (Topsport) survived until the finish.

Standing 6-foot-5, Wouter Mol is no small man. And he may be standing even taller after winning the 9th annual Tour of Qatar. Here we take a look at Mol's Batavus.

Who is Qatar leader Wouter Mol? Mol first popped up on the radar for many North American racing fans when he moved into the gold leader’s jersey at the Tour of Qatar earlier this week. Mol was half of an all-day breakaway that stayed away until the finish on stage 2.

Eddy Merckx bicycles returned to the top echelon of cycling again with the sponsorship of the Belgian ProTour team of Belgian national champion Tom Boonen.

Tom Boonen sprinted into a headwind to take stage 5 of the Tour of Qatar after a 14-man echelon was swept up in the closing kilometers. Katusha’s Danilo Napolitano took second ahead of Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Francesco Chicchi won the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar in a field sprint ahead of Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo) and JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank).

A look at Martijn Maaskant's Felt F1 at the Tour of Qatar.

Three years after JJ Haedo made the jump from North American racing to Europe, his younger brother Sebastian Haedo has done the same. For 2010, they’re both on Saxo Bank. It’s the first time the Argentine brothers have raced on the same professional team.

The beefed-up BMC squad began its racing season in earnest at the Tour of Qatar this week

Quick Step’s Tom Boonen sprinted to victory in the third stage of the Tour of Qatar on Tuesday, powering in ahead of Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam) and Saxo Bank’s Baden Cooke

American sprinter Tyler Farrar came to the Tour of Qatar with a prototype Mavic wheelset.

Ben Delaney takes a look at Edvald Boasson Hagen's Pinarello Dogma 60.1 bike.

This week's racing brings the Mallorca Challenge, the Tour Mediterranéen and the Tour of Qatar.

Graham Watson's gallery from Stage 2 of the 2010 Tour of Qatar.

Geert Steurs (Topsport) wins Stage 2 of the Tour of Qatar.

Editor in chief Ben Delaney's snaps from Stage 1 of the 2010 Tour of Qatar.

German sprinter Gerald Ciolek and his Milram squad are riding Focus bikes this season.

It was a day of firsts for the Trek-Livestrong team at Stage 1 of the Tour of Qatar.

It was a day of firsts for Trek-Livestrong at the 2010 Tour of Qatar,

Geert Steurs wins Stage 2 and Wouter Mol takes the lead at the 2010 Tour of Qatar.

Team Sky wins Stage 1 at the 2010 Tour of Qatar.

Team Sky's eight-man squad flew to victory in the opening team trial at the Tour of Qatar. Sky posted a time of 9:41 on the windswept 8.2km course.

Boonen confident for Tour of Qatar: Qatar plus Tour of Oman will be good training for the classics, the Belgian sprinter says

Lithuania’s Raissa Lelivyte won the opening stage of the second annual Ladies Tour of Qatar on Wednesday. The 20-year-old with the Italian Safi-Pasta Zara Manhattan team out sprinted a 30-woman pack at the end of the 104km stage from the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha to Al Khor Corniche.

HTC-Columbia Women's Team gets its racing season underway in the Tour of Qatar next week, and they're aiming for a strong start to 2010.

Mark Cavendish will postpone his season debut until the Ruta del Sol in mid-February due to a dental problem that’s delayed his training. The HTC-Columbia ace was expecting to make his 2010 season debut at the Tour of Qatar in early February, but team officials said he will open his campaign at the five-day Spanish race instead.

The third and final stage of the Women's Tour of Qatar saw Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini triumph for the second time of the event, outsprinting her rivals to clinch the win on the Al Khor Corniche. Overall victory went to Dutch rider Kirsten Wild. As the 84 remaining riders started, only 6 seconds separated Wild from her closest Bronzini on the GC.

The Tour of Qatar has won its place in the international cycling calendar and it could one day host a Tour de France stage, cycling legend Eddy Merckx believes. This year's race, won last week by Belgian powerhouse Tom Boonen, was the eighth edition of an event which has seen competitive cycling come to the Gulf for the first time. The 64-year-old Merckx, whom many see as the greatest cyclist ever, said he is convinced that the Tour of Qatar has gained in strength during that time.

Eva Lutz (Nürnberger) won stage 2 of the Women’s Tour of Qatar on Monday. Veronicca Andreason (Bigla Cycling Team) took second in the 100km stage with Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto-Belison) third at 14 seconds back in a group that included Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) and race leader Giorgia Bronzini (Italy). Wild took the leader’s jersey from Bronzini and now holds a five-second advantage over her with Kirtsy Broun (Australia) third at 12 seconds. Stage 1. Eva Lutz (G), Nürnberger, 110km in 2:49:56 (38.839 km/h)

Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won the Tour of Qatar in Doha on Friday following Columbia's Mark Cavendish's sprint victory in the sixth and final stage. The win was Cavendish's second stage win in a tour marked by the untimely death of 21-year-old Belgian Frederiek Nolf on Thursday. Cavendish dedicated his stage win to the young rider and his family.

Belgian cyclist Frederiek Nolf, competing in the Tour of Qatar, was found dead in his bedroom Thursday morning prior to stage five, one of the race chiefs, Eddy Merckx, announced.[nid:87315] Nolf, a member of the Topsport Vlaanderen team, was found dead by teammate Kristof Goddaert in their 14th floor shared room at the Ritz-Carlton.

Mark Cavendish won his first race of the season by capturing the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar Wednesday in Madinat Al Shamal. Team Columbia-High Road’s sprint specialist pulled ahead of a small group of riders in the final meters of the 141km stage to secure victory ahead of Germany's Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam). Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who took the race lead from Cervélo’s Roger Hammond after winning Tuesday's stage, had launched the final drive for the line but gave up yards from home.

Brawny Italian sprinter Danilo Napolitano – racing this week at the Tour of Qatar – is hoping a change of team colors will put him back in the heat of the sprints in 2009. After an inconsistent season that saw him miss both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Napolitano signed with Russian-sponsored Katusha to search out new motivation. With two second-places in the opening three stages at the Qatar race, the new team colors seems to be working so far.

Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step) claimed his first stage win of this year's Tour of Qatar Tuesday, in the process taking the leader's jersey from Britain's Roger Hammond. Boonen, of Quick Step, won a bunch sprint at the end of the third stage ahead of Italian Danilo Napolitano and Belgian Jurgen Roelandts.

Roger Hammond (Cervélo Test Team) won the second stage of the Tour of Qatar on Monday after bringing home a solo attack late in the 134km race around Al Khor. Hammond, who takes over the race lead from fellow Briton Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream, leapt away from a 14-man lead group and finished just one second ahead of a chase headed by Italian Danilo Napolitano (Team Katusha) and including Belgian sprint star Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who finished fourth. Hammond’s teammate Heinrich Haussler took third.

Powered by newcomer Bradley Wiggins, Garmin-Slipstream roared to victory in the team time trial to open the Tour of Qatar on Sunday. Wiggins, a winner of two gold medals on the track at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, takes the leader’s jersey after crossing the line first with his new Garmin-Slipstream teammates. “It’s a big satisfaction because this first stage was a true goal for us in our winter preparation in Girona,” Wiggins said. “Now our week is saved and we can try the sprints without any pressure.”

Having decided to bid for the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, Qatar is now hoping to host a stage of the Tour de France some time in the future. Serious talks are underway between Tour de France officials and the Qatar Cycling Federation to bring the toughest cycling race to the streets of the oil and gas rich state, the Gulf Times newspaper reported on Sunday. Transporting hundreds of cyclists with all their gear from Europe may seem a huge logistical problem but officials have a solution for that too: just arrange an Airbus A-380.

On a plane bound for the Persian Gulf, the peloton sat together on our way to start the season. In an odd contrast of environments we traveled from Paris to Qatar, from the damp gray to the arid sun, from rolling roads in green and brown pastures to straight flat motorways in desert sand. Slowly, cycling is planting its roots in other cultures.

Filippo Pozzato makes his season debut in his new team colors at Katusha this weekend at the Tour of Qatar a very different rider than he was one year ago. After a sub-par 2008 campaign with just two minor victories and a snub at selection for the Italian national team for the world championships in Varese, a fresh start at the Russian-sponsored Katusha is just what Pozzato says he needs to erase the bad memories.

It looks like Tom Boonen (Quick Step) will face stiffer competition in this year’s Tour of Qatar.