We've had 5 continental races already this season, so now it's about time for the ProTour to begin! The Tour of Qatar is the now traditional season opener, with a short opening TTT, followed by 5 flat stages. Sprinters paradise maybe? Or not, with strong winds battering the country, anything could happen.
Focusing solely on the team time trial though, and the Cyanide bookmakers have come up with 5 favourites for the stage: Auber 93, Festina, Sony Ericsson, Jack Wolfskin and Lafarge. Auber of course, have the best time trialist in the race - Jerome Coppel, while Jack Wolfskin have Dominique Cornu, and Sony Ericsson have Sebastien Lang. In terms of having the better riders, based on pure TT stat (which is likely to take precedence in such a short stage), there are a few other teams who could challenge. Vesuvio have both Kittel and Ford, Nespresso has Fiedler, and La Gazzetta dello Sport have Van Winden. And then there's last years Top 2 - Wikipedia and B&O.
Kicking off the ProTour season are Cafe de Colombia. Nobody expected them to be here this season, before Lovkvist's dramatic win in Japan at the season end. But while Lovkvist is now gone, the team are here, and Andrew Tennant leads them across the line for a benchmark of 14'39
It doesnt last long though, as Bonnet leads one of the pre-stage favourites Lafarge to an 8 second lead
Domina Vacanze go a distant 3rd, at 37 seconds down
But here are Auber 93 - Look. French champion Coppel lead them early on, but it is Kai Reus on the front when they cross the line - and beat their French rivals to go 1st, with a 12 second lead
5th out of 5 for Warner Brothers - Carrefour. 52 seconds down.
Lipton turned up to the race having overlooked the fact that there was a TTT. With a lack of practice, they managed to stick many non-time trialists on front, so best rider Stundzia did not even get a chance to relay. Theyre not last though, 46 seconds down sees them ahead of Domina and Warner Bros
A similar mistake occured for La Gazzetta with their 3 time trialists starting 5th, 6th and 7th in the train. Flens did get a relay in though, while Vandewalle led over the finish. Its 4th place, 25 seconds down.
Now its Festina. Their manager had been confident of a strong showing here, but they cant match Auber. In fact, they barely beat Lafarge. Coming in 12 seconds down, beating Lafarge by only a fraction of a second.
Next up are Vesuvio-Accumalux. Kittel didnt get an opportunity to realy, but Ford, Barth and Clesen delivered a strong showing and they pull of a great ride to go 2nd! 11 seconds down on Auber still, but a better showing than expected
Carmeuse Cyclisme come next. But they finish last, 1 second behind Warner Brothers
A decent ride by Philips - TDC sees them go 5th, 18 seconds down
Wikipedia won this stage last year, but not this year, they are 2 seconds slower than Philips
Next are Jack Wolfskin, led by Cornu and Posthuma, but they cannot challenge Auber. They go 12 seconds down, with the same time as Festina and Lafarge
Energie-Diesel go 10th, 41 seconds down
Fiedler then leads Nespresso over the line in 6th, 17 seconds down
Wildcards Milka are next, and they take a provisional 10th - just 1 second behind Wikipedia and Cafe de Colombia
1 second slower than Milka are the team of Pearl Adidas
Team B&O are a further 5 seconds back, missing out on the Top 10
Another 12 seconds slower are the Starbucks-Radioshack team
And so to our final team Sony Ericsson - and theyre quick! Its going to be touch and go between them and Auber. Sebastian Lang powers the Swedish team over the line, and theres 3 seconds in it! But who has won?
