The infamous echelons form in Qatar
David McCann has said while the Tour of Qatar hasn’t been as breezy this year as in previous editions, the race is still a dogfight for position into corners where the riders know the field is about to split.
While the Belfast man and compatriot Matt Brammeier both got caught out in the splits on today’s third stage, McCann said he’s happy with his condition despite the arrival of his third child in recent weeks.
“It seems it hasn’t been as windy here as other years and the race has been a bit more relaxed for a while,” he told stickybottle after today’s 146.5km stage won by Mark Cavendish.
“But once the wind gets up a bit later on and is in the right direction, the bunch is very nervous. It’s just a full-on fight for position into the corners before the bunch breaks into echelons. What position you take the corner going into the side wind is pretty much what group you’ll end up in.”
“The fitness seems not to have suffered too much from missing a week with the arrival of new baby McCann and I should be getting better day by day.”
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He and Brammeier today found themselves in the biggest group of the day, 1:29 down on the stage winner’s group of some 40 riders, which itself split in the finale.
However, a number of groups were over ten minutes down, with some riders losing over 12 minutes.
Brammeier had worked well earlier in the stage to defend the GC lead of his Omega Pharma-Quickstep team mate Tom Boonen and to try and set him up for another win to add to his opening stage victory.
Brammeier said he was disappointed not to be in the mix helping Boonen in the finale, having been caught out on the wrong side of a late split.
“After a long stint pulling on the front I lost almost 100 positions in 10 seconds,” he said.
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“Usual Qatari battle left me in the second group.”
Tomorrow’s stage is unlikely to offer any respite from the increasing winds, with 160km to be covered from Al Thakhira to Madinat Al Shamal.
Stage 3
1) Mark Cavendish (Sky) 3:23:48
2) Tom Boonen (OmegaPharma-QuickStep)
3) Aidis Kruopis (GreenEdge)
4) Mark Renshaw (Rabobank)
5) John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i) all same time
82) David McCann (Irl) RTS Racing Team at 1'29"
98) Matt Brammeier (Irl) OmegaPharma-QuickStep same time
General Classification
1) Tom Boonen (OmegaPharma-QuickStep) 6:47:49
2) Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) at 6 secs
3) Mark Cavendish (Sky) at 8 secs
4) Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Barracuda) at 12 secs
5) Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Barracuda) same time
40) Matt Brammeier (Irl) OmegaPharma-QuickStep at 1:45
96) David McCann (Irl) RTS Racing Team at 3:12
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