Lordy Lordy! We have ourselves a full race schedule this week. Your final KMs are from Tour of Dubai, Ladies Tour of Qatar, Etoile de Bessages, Herald Sun Tour and Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. As Lisa Stansfield might warble, ‘Been around the world and I-yi-yi , I can’t find my bidon!’
Dubai Tour, Stage 1, Dubai Int’l Marine Club to Fujairah, 173km
ArgoSunGod Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) was feelin’ good and took the first stage, outsprinting Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) to take the first leader’s jersey.
Ladies Tour of Qatar, Stage 2, Sheikh Faisal Museum to Al Khor Corniche, 120km
Crosswinds, echelons, the race busted to pieces. Katrin Garfoot (Orica-AIS) took advantage and finished solo. Kristen Wild, who was in the gold leader’s jersey, had a puncture and a crash and finished 4mins down. Trixi Worrack (Canyon SRAM Racing) and Amy Pieters (Wiggle High5) rounded out the podium. Wild keeps the silver points jersey; Anouska Koster (Raboliv) takes the best young rider jersey.
Herald Sun Tour, ITT prologue, Melbourne, 2.1km
William Clarke (Drapac) took the opening super-short prologue with a blink-of-the-eye time of 2:34.27, one second ahead of Caleb Ewen (Orica-GreenEDGE) and two seconds ahead of Neil Van Der Ploeg (Avanti IsoWhey Sports).
Prologue victor William Clarke with his kangaroo plushie! Caleb Ewen and Neil van der Ploeg are on the podium but plushie-less. Image: Herald SunTour
Etoile de Besseges, Stage 1, Bellegarde to Beaucaire, 152km
We’ve been to the desert, we’ve been to Australia, now we’re in France. No videos but here’s a natty picture of Bryan Coquard from Team Angry Cat Direct Energie, who sprinted to victory straight into the first leader’s jersey. Timothy Dupont (Verandas Willems) and Antoine Demoitie (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) rounded out the day’s podium.
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Stage 1, Benicassim to Oropesa del Mar, 16.25km ITT
Team Sky put on quite a ITT performance on stage 1 of VCV. Wout Poels and TT World Champion Vasil Kiryienka finished 1st and 3rd respectively, with Astana’s Luis Leon Sanchez sandwiched between them.
Links:
Official site for Herald Sun Tour, Twitter #SunTour
Official site for Dubai Tour, Twitter #DubaiTour
Official site for Ladies Tour of Qatar, Twitter #LTOQ2016
Official site for Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Twitter #VCV2016
Header: ArgoSunGod with confetti …