This 12 stage race in the Middle East was a rather a disappointment for us here at Fox Sports. We sent what we thought was a good enough team to get us a top 10 overall.



Unfortunately that wasn't the case. With a mix of stages, as you can see below, an exciting race was inevitable.



The first few stages not a lot happened for the team. Stage 1 was taken out by Kamil Zielinski who showed that Fablok - Dunlop still has great form that has carried since the Tour Down Under. Stage 2 was more exciting with an escaped rider almost taking the stage win but it was once again the sprinter from Fablok - Dunlop, Kamil Zielinski, who took the win. Stage 3 brought one of our riders out of the peloton. Delgerbayar made the jump and joined the two leaders on the road. Unfortunetly he couldn't hang on and dropped off the back and returned to the peloton. On that particular day it was the breakaway that Delgerbayar road up to that took the win. The Kiwi Jack Bauer showed his strength on the 3rd hilly stage in a row.



Stage 4 brought us mountain stage #1 and again Fox Sports - Golomt was not seen. Roe was still close to the front but not close enough to be seen on any cameras. The winner was Gian Piero Signorini from the Indosat - ANZ team. He managed to outsprint Trent Lowe for the win. Stage 5 is the first flat stage. We expected to see Giacoppo near the front but he could only manage 21st place. Daniel Thorsen from the BelarusBank team took the win. Stage 6 is the 2nd flat stage. Today we actually saw Giacoppo at the front of the race following the BelarusBank leadout train. During the sprint he wasn't strong enough and improved on the day before but still only got 14th place.



The 3rd sprint stage in a row. Giacoppo is once again seen at the front during the sprint. This time he sprints well and fast and has no one blocking his way but can only muster 9th place.



Back into the mountains for stage 8 now. Roe is a lot more active but is not good enough to mix with the top climbers. The winner is Lowe from the Compal - Merida team. Stage 9 is again in the mountains. The winner of the stage is Bagot from the Verkefnid Iceland team. Giacoppo is forced to retire after finishing outside of the time limit. The 10th stage is a little different. Completely flat start until the end where we shoot straight up! It is Wang from Compal - Merida who takes another win for the team.



The 11th stage is the TT. Roe is a strong individual time trialist and shows that in the stage by coming in 7th place. The winner of the stage is Jakub Novak from the In-n-Out squad.

The final stage of the race is a flat stage. However with not a lot of sprinters still in the race it is anyone's stage to win. Chavanel found himself in the break of the day.



The breakaway stays away and it is Lukas Flückiger from the Actavis - DKSH team who takes the win. Chavanel has a great stage and comes in 5th place, which is the 3rd top 10 in the Tour of the Middle East for the team.