That will cheer Cavendish up: https://twitter.com/Etixx_QuickStep/...841600/photo/1

Reverse outcome to last year's stage with Kittel's Giant team at the front into the final corner and Cavendish was nowhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wapFn5sRsjQ

On their third season, the Etixx Quickstep has not perfected the lead out. Still checking over the shoulder in the final stages and pulling off early.

Cav wins the final stage in Dubai to take the overall title

It was quite interesting........3 sprint stages and one 'median mountain' which wasn't hard enough to shake off Cav or the other sprinters from a chance of winning the overall

Bit of a mixed bag from Cav over the 3 sprint stages

He won the first sprint stage despite a poor lead out which left him at the front far too early and he just hung on from fast finishers coming from further back

He then got beat by Sky's new sprinter, Viviani, in a more straightforward sprint on the second sprint stage

Today he had a beautiful lead out which left Renshaw and himself clear with a couple of hundred metres to go........no one was going to catch him today !

as I say.......a mixed bag.

Eurosport cycling schedule for 2015 -

https://twitter.com/eurosportcom_en/...07111431847938


Next race is the Ruta del Sol in a couple of weeks.......a new one for Eurosport ?

It has been a good week for the Brits - Lizzie Armitstead (to her own surprise) won 2 stages and the GC in the Ladies Tour of Qatar: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/lad...-of-qatar-2015

Tour of Qatar starts tomorrow: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-qatar-2015
Assuming there are no last-minute changes, look out for the rainbow skinsuit in the Stage 3 ITT.

Rohan Dennis is (as expected) the new custodian of the Hour Record, which now stands at 52.491km. @xavierdisley has updated his graph.

They promised echelons, and Stage 1 of the Tour of Qatar delivered. It was won by José Joaquin Rojas, which was perhaps unexpected considering Movistar aren't lauded for their ability to ride echelons (judging by the reactions on the Cyclingnews forum).

Stage 2 is now underway - Etixx-QuickStep have been wreaking havoc from the get-go, and the average speed during the first hour of racing was apparently 54.2km/h.

They maintained that average speed for a second hour, and it was Alexander Kristoff who took the stage victory as well as top spot in the GC. Average speed was about 50.6km/h if my maths is correct - which is still approx. 6km/h below the record set in stage 4 of the 2014 edition.

Apparently there was no live TV coverage until the last 3km because of sandstorms!

The Track World Championships are coming round again........18th to 22nd February in Paris

GB Team -

Men's sprint: Kian Emadi, Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny, Callum Skinner

Women's sprint: Katy Marchant, Jess Varnish, Victoria Williamson

Men's endurance: Steven Burke, Mark Christian, Ed Clancy, Jon Dibben, Owain Doull, Matt Gibson, Andy Tennant

Women's endurance: Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne, Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott


Decent coverage, mainly on red button but some on BBC2.....

Wed 18 Feb: 18:00-21:05 GMT (Red Button) and 19:00-20:00 (BBC Two)
Thu 19 Feb: 18:00-21:25 (Red Button, not on BBC Two Wales)
Fri 20 Feb: 18:00-21:25 (Red Button)
Sat 21 Feb: 18:00-21:10 (Red Button)
Sun 22 Feb: 13:00-17:00 (BBC Two)

Also on radio, 5Live sports extra..........

18-21 Feb: 18:00-21:15/21:30
22 Feb: 13:00-16:15

Wiggo's debut in the rainbow skinsuit: https://twitter.com/felixmattis/stat...03891985866752

---

Lots of photos showing up on Twitter now.

oh blimey.........I'd already forgotten that Wiggo is the reigning world time trial champion

nice kit........is this the only day he'll wear it ?

He's currently scheduled to ride in Paris-Nice (8-15 March), which has 2 ITT (Prologue & Stage 7). After Paris-Roubaix he'll be competing in the domestic time trials, I guess as prep for the 'Hour'.

Niki Terpstra wins the stage 3 ITT and now leads the GC. As things stand, he is in a good position to defend his title in Qatar, from which the winners tend to go on to win Paris-Roubaix (he is defending champ there as well).

It was another windy day, and for logistical reasons all competitors had to use their road race bikes. The pick of the 'testers' were Cancellara & Wiggins, yet they finished the stage 8/9 seconds in arrears, which is a big gap over 10.9km.

Alexander Kristoff was the best sprinter of the race - he thrives when the racing is hard, and went on to claim victories in Stages 4 & 5, denying Peter Sagan on both occasions.

He even gained time on Terpstra, and once all the intermediate sprints were contested, he could have won the race overall with victory in Stage 6 today. As things panned out, Sam Bennett won today's stage and Terpstra is the overall winner once more.

The twitter hashtag is #SQY15 and the event account is @swy. @UCI_Track also will report and could do with a few more followers.

Live bike cams are being introduced at the event.

In other track news, Cancellara says it is unlikely he will take on the hour record. It is suggested he may retire immediately after his next classics win.

BBC Coverage of the World Tracks is 18:00-21:30 on BBC Red Button every night from Wednesday to Saturday, and then BBC2 on Sunday afternoon 13:00-16:15. Think that will probably be it, the BBC have gotten into the nasty habit of geoblocking YouTube these days.

Contador has announced he will probably retire at the end of the 2016 season. His Tinkov-Saxo contract ends this year. Tinkov previously suggested he may retire at the end of this season.

Spanish cycling needs a new generation of winners as his peers and marginal elders, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde, are not getting any younger.

And the younger riders do not benefit from the consequences of massive doping in their youth, the way the older generation did.

Split first stage of the Ruta del Sol tomorrow. 118km bumpy road stage in the morning followed by 8.3km ITT live mid-afternoon. What do you call a prologue-ish TT after the start? Live GPS tracking on the website and app: http://www.vueltaandalucia.com/index.php/en

Stage 4 looks the decisive one: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race....50067-profiles

That won't be a problem if you have the Hola plugin.

Worldwide broadcast schedule (no live broadcasts of any morning session)
Competition schedule (times are all CET)

As an aside, the 2016 Track WCh has been rescheduled for 2-6 March to avoid clashing with the Six Nations.

More people would watch this if they knew it was on the red button.
I always have to check on my PVR programme guide to see if it's on when I know an event is coming up, as my telly mag never gives the information about red button coverage..

I thought the Radio Times usually did........but there's nothing in there today

this is handy.......'red button schedule' for around the coming 10 days

http://www.locatetv.com/uk/listings/...ew#06-Feb-2014


The Ruta del Sol is on Eurosport this afty at 3.30pm.......it says live coverage but I expect they'll show highlights of this mornings stage before the final few riders in the time trial

The full timetable for the champs is here, -1 hour for British time as usual.

http://www.trackworld-france2015.com/official-program/

Today's programme is a bit skinny - team pursuit qualifying for the men and women in the afternoon session starting a few minutes at 14:00, and then in the evening just the men's and women's team sprint events and the women's scratch race.

There won't be any live coverage of the early sessions though, according to the list Edward posted.

See post #3518. (I see you already have)

Some more links:

Swiss Timing live results app (Java)
Full results page

Thanks for that.

Only 30 riders left with a chance of the overall after Stage 1A

GIF of the second crash from Inrng (Kadri and Kiryienka?): http://inrng.tumblr.com/post/1113796...he-other-while

Roy's bikecam view of the crashes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXQICuu4w2A

There's a new (well, new to me!) British rider in the peloton......Hugh Carthy, aged 20, riding with Caja Rural-Seguras, the Spanish 2nd division team.

He rode with Rapha Condor in the UK in 2013 and had a couple of wins in the far east last year including the overall GC in the Tour of Korea

Caja is a good team for a young rider as there are lots of domestic stage races in Spain with the possibility of wild card invites to some world tour races

He should get plenty of good experience