He has 3-4-5 so far, can he get 1-2 in next 2 stages... Let's see!

Surely one of last chances for Nizzolo to prove himself in Qatar. He must. We're definitely going for win here,today!




Fresh weather and air in nearby oasis, just after the start of stage seems to suit few guys, since they made an attack and breakaway of the day. All of them are down in GC and are searching a chance to win here.



But Orica's guys were unrelenting and didn't let them go. Now, as every on every other stage, at 15 kilometers to go, trains are created. Once again, FDJ & Trek are on the top.



Echelons are doing its job and now there are only 38 guys in peloton. Everything seemed normal,usual and same as in previous stages, until one moment. 4 kilometers to go and someone's attacking! Who's that? Hmm, black suit... Oh my God , it's Jasper Styuven!



There is...There is someone who's following him. Is that Sky's or IAM's guy... No, it's Danilo Hondo! Oh my God , Trek now has 2 guys in breakaway. This certainly wasn't expected!



They started sprinting, but can they reach the finish line before peloton? Of course, main sprinters were getting closer and closer, but 50 meters before finish line it was clear - Styuven and Hondo does 1-2 for Trek!



Oh my, oh my. We had absolutely no luck in previous 4 stages with all of these narrow roads, strong wind, we were blocked all the time, but it's all corrected in one stage. This is just great. Also, Nizzolo missed the sprint and decided to celebrate instead of fighting for 3rd place.

1	Jasper Stuyven	Trek Factory Racing	3h06'52
2	Danilo Hondo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
3	Nacer Bouhanni	FDJ.fr	s.t.
4	Mickaël Delage	FDJ.fr	s.t.
5	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Michael Mørkøv	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
8	Daniele Bennati	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
9	Ben Swift	Team Sky	s.t.
10	Tyler Farrar	Garmin Sharp	s.t.

And for the end, guess what! Al Jazeera Sports decided to share this great win with their readers in their sport article, as its main news.



Can't be better, surely!

Team really is doing good at the start of the season. Thanks on the kind words about reports/story, it's always nice to know that you're enjoying reading this.

Last stage of ToQ 2014 edition is in front of us. What can we say except that we did great so far with 1-2-3-4-5 positions filled, and we'll surely try to repeat one of that position here aswell.




Gorgeus day in Qatar, with only 20°C. Riders were enjoying, huge amount of them gone in a breakaway and it was real pleasure to watch a stage like this.



Our teams photographer were impressed pretty much by this nature after 5 days in the middle of desert, so he took few pictures of breakaway. We're sharing only 2 with you, since there's no place for more.



But, real racing had to start at one point. 20 kilometers to go, peloton is one complete and compact group once again. Trains are about to be created.



Our guys are there as you can see. Perfect position, great leadout and sprint could start. 1,5 kilometer to go and Nizzolo opens the sprint.



But it was too early. Brett Lancaster, the guy in form, sprints from behind and gets his 3rd win here with ease. What a beast he was in this race!



Nizzolo pays price of an early sprint and finishes as 6th, in front of E. B. Hagen and Bryan Coquard.



By the finsih of this stage, ToQ 2014 is official closed and finished. Let's bring on results, to see what we got here.

1	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	2h02'38
2	Daniele Bennati	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
3	Ben Swift	Team Sky	s.t.
4	Nacer Bouhanni	FDJ.fr	s.t.
5	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
7	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	s.t.
8	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	s.t.
9	Michael Mørkøv	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
10	Matteo Pelucchi	IAM Cycling	s.t.

1	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	14h02'47
2	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	+ 28
3	Damien Howson	Orica GreenEdge	+ 38
4	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	+ 40
5	Jens Keukeleire	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Svein Tuft	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Cameron Meyer	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
8	Christian Meier	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Jens Mouris	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Ben Swift	Team Sky	+ 44

See ya on preview of next race, Tour of Oman [DS of Trek FR]

Firstly, thanks everyone for support, means alot. Team really did great in Stage 5 and i think we should definitely start these late "Vinokourov-like" attacks often.

Lancaster's stats are 74SP/76ACC as far as i know, but he's on 1 or 2 form so it's understandable. Our guys are still on 3-5 form level, it will surely get better soon.

Few days after Tour of Qatar finished, our guys are moving to Oman. Actually, they're not moving since there is whole new squad in Oman for us. The race is one of most important 2.x races for the team, so we're going to try to do something here, definitely.




As you can see, route isn't so flat this time since there are 1 mountainous and 1 hilly stage aswell, with some serious climbs. Also, we won't ride in the middle of the desert as guys did in Qatar, so weather should be a bit better than it was in ToQ.

Some biggest world names are on the startlist and that should bring us alot of fun. Some of them are: Kittel, Froome, Cancellara, Quintana, Gilbert, Betancur, Horner, Matthews, Van den Broeck... Surely the startlist with strongest names so far in this season.



Our team is really strong aswell, with Cancellara and Schleck brothers riding their first race this season. Also, we have names such as Danny van Poppel here, who is surely going for some nice results in the sprint (won't say win with this competition, but at least podium is goal).



See ya soon on the report of first Tour of Oman's stage, DS of Trek FR

Thanks guys, once again. Cancellara winning in Oman would be great, but it's hardly to believe he's going to beat names like Quintana and Froome on that steep climb in 4th stage.

The first stage of Oman is flat and would surely finish in mass sprint if something very strange don't happen over the route. Breakaway's going to be created probably, but no one is going to let them win this.




And as it was expected, breakaway was created early as sponsors needs some showoff in the first stage of this popular race. Van Avermaet is in breakaway and that's somehow big surprise. He's supposed to be main sprinter for BMC here, but who knows what their plans are.



But as it was expected and said in pre-stage review, breakaway couldn't resist the strong pace peloton set, so they dropped. As planned, the stage is going to be finished in a mass sprint. First trains are created and everyone seems to go for their teammates wheels, except Breschel who's following Henderson here.



Our guys were there aswell, in the center of the road. Cancellara - Felline - van Poppel for us. Spartacus did great job as well as Felline did and sprint could start. It's now Kittel - Henderson - van Poppel - Impey fight.

Kittel of course wins this with ease, as he had perfect train with Degenkolb as his leadout.



Few meters behind, guys are fighting for 2 left podium places. Henderson takes the 2nd one and our Danny van Poppel gets 3rd one. Degenkolb finishes as 4th, with empty hands today.



Pretty good result for our guys, considering how strong competition it is here. Felline finished as 6th, which makes it even better.

1	Marcel Kittel	Team Giant - Shimano	3h17'53
2	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
3	Danny Van Poppel	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
4	John Degenkolb	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
5	Jens Debusschere	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
6	Fabio Felline	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
7	Roberto Ferrari	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
8	Daryl Impey	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Sacha Modolo	Lampre - Merida	s.t.

Yep, van Poppel did good job to grab 3rd place. We'll surely try to go for GC with Andy (since he's in way better form than Frank), but there is, precisely there are problems called Quintana and Froome. We'll see what we can do, tho.

The stage 2 is very tricky one, actually. Listed as flat stage, the stage 2 will surely bring us alot of fun, mostly because the last 2 hills.




The breakaway waited few kilometers after the started and when they organised, they decided to attack and create BOTD. Only 3 guys in it: Claesys, Tossato and Goesinnen.



No one actually believed they can stay in the front for a long time, but that actually happened. Peloton, mainly Giant - Shimano and Sky let them go, since they're not so important for GC.

Nothing happened until 10 kilometers to go. Just under the yellow banner, Claesys attacks. Tossato is dropping and Goesinnen is trying to follow. They have 2'30" minutes of advantage over the peloton. Should be enough.



They guys at the front already headed the last steep climb, and it's now turn on peloton. But is that attack? Who's that, black kitt... Hmm, can be Fabian Cancellara... Yes it is, it's Spartacus attacking with only 5 kilometers to go.



Big mess and panic in the peloton. Everyone wants to find a place at the front. Van den Broeck is trying to reduce the gap and give Henderson better position for sprint. Schleck brothers and Felline are there for us.

Meanwhile, Spartacus manages to catch and overtake Goesinnen and is now getting closer and closer to Claesys. Can he win this?



At the end, Claesys manages to take the win 50 meters in front of Luigi. Surely deserved win after brave attack and fight over these hills. Still great 2nd place for Fabian!



A minute behind, group comes to a finish line. Felline followed Kittel all the time and at the end, he somehow managed to overtake him and get 2nd position. It's 2-3 for Trek now!



This is definitely great indicator on what can happen in next few days.

1	Kevin Claeys	An Post - Chain Reaction	3h22'47
2	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	+ 25
3	Fabio Felline	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'00
4	Chris Froome	Team Sky	s.t.
5	Floris Goesinnen	Drapac Pro Cycling	s.t.
6	Richie Porte	Team Sky	s.t.
7	Chris Horner	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
8	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
9	Marcel Kittel	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
10	Jean-Christophe Peraud	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.

1	Kevin Claeys	An Post - Chain Reaction	6h40'08
2	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	+ 45
3	Marcel Kittel	Team Giant - Shimano	+ 1'04
4	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'20
5	Floris Goesinnen	Drapac Pro Cycling	s.t.
6	Fabio Felline	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'24
7	Danny Van Poppel	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
8	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'26
9	Sacha Modolo	Lampre - Merida	+ 1'28
10	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	+ 1'30

Well, it was good result for Fabian, since he couldn't really get 2 and a half minutes in 5 kilometers. He is Spartacus and something close to God, but he really couldn't do that.

Also, just for info, this will probably be the last report with these settings. They're just too bright for my opinion and i am getting back to old settings, but a bit edited. Hope you'll like them.

3rd stage can be pretty interesting with that uphill sprint at the end, but it's not for classic puncheurs but more for normal and hilly sprinters. We'll see what can van Poppel do here.




Breakaway were created from an early start, but got caught at about 100 kilometers to go. We have no idea what could happen to result that, but whatever it was, it made Sky pretty angry that they started strong pace.



Calm ride 'till last 5 kilometers, where things started heating up. No big trains today, as you can see, max 2 guys. For us, on right side of the road, there are Cancellara - van Poppel. Felline is not feeling good today, so he decided to skip this sprint.



Giant Shimano started the sprint as the first and Kittel gone out of Degenkolb's wheel pretty early. He couldn't keep the speed on this hill so Matthews overtakes him and gets the win.



It could've been better if Degenkolb was their main sprinter today, but well, their tactic is to focus on Marcel in this race.

Anyways, after brave fight, van Poppel finishes as 3rd, just behind Kittel. He started accelerating late so he could even maybe get 2nd position, but it's late to talk about that.



Even 3rd is great result for us with this strong competition and this kind of terrain. Fabian finishes as 5th. Nothing changed in GC, btw.

1	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	4h16'56
2	Marcel Kittel	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
3	Danny Van Poppel	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
4	John Degenkolb	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
5	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
6	Chris Froome	Team Sky	s.t.
7	Salvatore Puccio	Team Sky	s.t.
8	Daryl Impey	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Sacha Modolo	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
10	Kevin Claeys	An Post - Chain Reaction	s.t.