Tour of Qatar

I've decided to revive this blog and make it more about pro cycling and bicycle commuting. Mostly because I love this stuff and I want to share it with those who are also interested in cycling. Also, I feel like this is a slightly healthier outlet than fantasy cycling. Yes, it does exist and yes I did finish with the highest cumulative score after the three grand tours last year. I'm just that cool (well, mostly just lucky).

The cycling season is in the early stages. The Tour Down Under just wrapped up in Australia. And now my attention is turning to the Tour of Qatar. This six-day race is pretty much a sprint-fest. The first day (Feb. 1) has a 6K team time trial. I'm pretty clueless as to who will win, but I'll be pulling for Garmin-Slipstream who is always deadly in this discipline. I really like the team time trial, mostly because it just looks cool and it reminds people that cycling is very much a team sport. The Garmins won the TTT at the Giro d'talia last year.

But what I'm most interested in seeing is Mark Cavendish take on Tom Boonen for the Silver Jersey (awarded to the guy who gets the most points, which are collected by finishing in the top 15 of a stage). In early 2008 it seemed like Boonen over at QuickStep was going to dominate the season. The guy's won world championships, he's won Paris-Roubaix (known as the hell of the north) twice and has won the sprinter's jersey at the Tour de France. It looked like this hard man was going to be the top sprinter in 2008 until a little pesky cocain bust got in the way. Suddenly he had to sit out much of the season as race organizers were not so interested in having Mr. Boonen participate.

In the void left by Boonen, stepped Mark Cavendish, the Brit from the Isle of Man. This young rider for team Columbia blew the doors off of everyone at the Giro d'talia and Tour de France. I know I'm not alone in wondering whether Cavendish would have dominated so much had Boonen been allowed to race.

I'm giddy that we should be able to find out this season. Both riders benefitted from strong teammates who would make a train for them to ride to the front for the final sprint. Both riders have lost key members of their leadout train (with Boonen losing Gert Steegmans to Katusha and Cavendish losing Gerald Ciolek to Milram). Qatar is an early, easy race so it probably won't tell us much (unless one of these guys shows up with a ponch). But I'm still excited that these two will be going head-to-head already and could be previewing future battles at the Tour of California and the rest of the season. I hope these two live up to the hype and deliver a year of great finishes.

Also, I really think Cavendish looks like Sam Bradford.