Belgium's Tom Boonen pulled out all the stops in a sprint finish to win stage three of the Tour of Qatar.
The defending champion lived up to his 'Tornado' nickname, edging out Heinrich Haussler of Germany and Australian Baden Cooke at the finish of the 136.5 kilometres stage from Dukhan in the west to Mesaieed, south of Doha.
The Quick Step rider has won the event three times in the last four years and his stage win was his 16th in the Tour since 2004.
However, Dutchman Wouter Mol retains the yellow jersey with an overall lead of nine seconds over Geert Steurs.
The finish was marred by a nasty pile-up just 200 metres from the line, causing Germany's Gerald Ciolek to break his collarbone. The 23-year-old will return to Germany for medical examinations to see if he requires surgery. His injury follows that of Norwegian champion and Team Sky member Kurt-Asle Arvesen, who broke his collarbone on Monday.
However, the rest of Team Sky crossed the line safely. Senior sports director Scott Sunderland told the Team Sky website: “It was a super-fast last few kilometres and then in the closing stages five or six riders came down.
“We'd had a team meeting beforehand and said we're here to do well but don't want to be taking any unnecessary risks at this stage of the season if it's not merited.
“It was a tough day yesterday but a little bit better today even though we had another four punctures on account of some rough road surfaces.
“The main thing now is for the riders to get to know each out on the road, and get used to communicating and working with each other on the bike in different race situations.”
But then an otherwise law abiding driver need to react to a speed camera, real or imitation?...
Don't forget their insurance will double or even triple for the next few years....
I too wondered why Giant want to recruit 4 highly paid with bullshit-speak sales & marketing experience, not real hands-on R&D knowledge ...
100% agree, it's nothing to do with them, how public opinion is split.
Here in Southampton we just get long lines of cars queuing for cruise ships. ...
Whilst EV cars are an improvement over ICE cars, I think they're a distraction from the possibilities of e-bikes, e-scooters and e-cargo-bikes etc....
She seemed a bit upset about a minor misjudgement that could have killed someone and is going to cause months of stress and inconvenience.
No we don't agree, personally I would take primary, even if only for a short period although I can understand why some riders might not want to...
And which looks very like the bag produced by indy bag manufacturer Wizard Works…...
The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.