Welcome to the 11th, and possibly last, edition of the Tour of the Middle East. The riders arrive with rumors swirling that Malaysia has made a lucrative cash offer to the mangame UCI to bring back the Tour of Langkawi, and this race is on the chopping block. Of course, it’s all rumors and with new Middle Eastern teams in the peloton and the locals knowing a lot about lucrative cash offers things could still change.
The TOME started in 2013 but is only in its 11th edition because it took 2017 off. Since the last race this reporting team covered went by without a single McCormick reference, we will get it out of the way early here, by noting that Sepp Kuss one this race for McCormick in 2021. Since then, it has been won by Bjorn Tore Hoem and William Chiarello. Of course, everything was won by Chiarello last year. The race has some quality in its history with Kudus (twice) and Pluchkin as former winners.
The race is the essence of a stage race (minus an IT), with 2 sprints, 1 hilly stage and a big mountain to finish. This year it will have the honor of being the first to test the new bonus second system whereby riders finishing 4th to 8th on each stage will receive time bonuses (1st to 8th: 20-12-8-6-4-3-2-1).
Jorgenson is this year’s Chiarello and he is looking to continue his dominance here. He has to contend with three 80 mountain riders. Seboka is probably not a threat and Carapaz didn’t come close to Jorgenson in Catalunya but with no TT’s on the menu Bennett has to be a serious contender.
The lack of TTs also suits Preidler and Smith as well, both of whom should be good on the hilly stage, Smith will look to use his stronger finish to take bonus seconds on that stage. Penasa and Munoz will hope to make the difference on the mountain stage while Lunke is not as strong an overall climber as those 4 but has strong secondary stats. Iturria is another rider with slightly lower climbing capabilities but strong secondaries. He won stage 4 last year.
In addition to the riders shown below there is a very deep field of climbers both mountain goats and more hybrid riders.
Rider
FL
MT
HI
RS
SP
AC
Bennett
66
80
75
73
64
72
Carapaz
69
80
71
76
56
65
Seboka
61
80
62
70
52
67
Jorgenson
73
79
75
78
65
71
Penasa
69
79
73
70
56
74
Munoz
66
79
73
72
56
71
Preidler
66
78
76
74
50
66
Smith
69
78
75
74
66
74
Berhane
65
78
72
69
59
63
Lunke
69
78
72
74
60
65
Madrazo
61
78
69
70
56
62
Manfredi
69
78
65
73
62
73
Chamorro
65
77
74
74
65
72
Rochas
67
77
74
70
61
73
Iturria
71
77
73
74
60
61
Pronskiy
65
77
73
72
61
73
Schleck
64
77
73
71
52
73
Munoz
64
77
73
69
57
70
Borisavljevic
68
77
73
74
59
65
Vanhoucke
71
77
72
72
67
68
Ablenado
66
77
66
76
50
64
A few punchy riders have shown up who won’t compete on the last stage but could steal the bonus seconds on the hilly stage (although a GC man has taken the hilly stage the last two years). They include:
Rider
FL
MT
HI
RS
SP
AC
Waeytens
69
70
79
68
65
71
Morin
70
65
78
73
69
76
Yates
71
65
78
74
62
69
Lafay
66
75
77
72
63
74
Zordan
67
73
77
72
65
74
Serrano
69
72
77
75
68
77
Skjerping
67
70
77
67
58
65
Carr
68
70
77
71
59
72
Izagirre
67
70
77
66
56
58
Morin and Serrano are the best finishers in this group while Lafay might hope to compete in the overall.
With two sprint days out of 4 race days, a number of sprinters have made the trip:
Rider
FL
SP
AC
RS
Carsi
70
80
82
69
Zariff
70
80
80
67
Willwohl
73
79
78
67
Riabushenko
76
79
77
74
Welten
76
79
75
71
Scott
72
78
78
71
Gibbons
75
78
78
72
Altanzul
72
78
75
73
Zhao
74
77
81
74
Barbier
75
77
79
71
Hofstetter
74
77
78
71
Van der Sande
73
77
76
70
McLay
73
77
76
72
Vingerling
69
77
76
63
Houle
76
77
75
68
Carsi and Zariff are the best on paper but neither of them is known for their toughness. Riabushenko is a much tougher customer and after a very poor 2023 he will be looking to make a difference this year. Not a lot of great lead outs but Willwohl has Reinhardt and Stalberg.
18 teams on the start line including 3 from the PCT in Benetton, Sony – Force India and Kraftwerk.
This could be where Bennett starts to makes his big dent into the CT. This race is really perfect for him and with his performance in both the hills and Mountains in Tachira he could do really well here! Jorgensen will be a tough competitor but it will be a really interesting race I think with no TT
Also hoping Scott can do well in the sprints as well!
This is one of only a couple of genuine opportunities for Smith and others to challenge Jorgenson in the C2 calendar. Looking forward to seeing what he can do, as well as our sprint train (which has come in force) on the first two stages.
This is a prioritised race for us, though regrettably not a goal race.
Side note: if the Middle East (Oman, UAE, etc) is struggling to compete with Malaysia for cash, we must be living in an alternative reality
Tour of the Middle East 
