Doha Corniche, Qatar, 2009-02-06

Beyer spends day in break as Zberg finishes GC 15th

The racing in Qatar continued on Friday with a subdued final stage around the Doha Corniche. With stage winner Mark Cavendish dedicating his stage victory to Frederiek Nolf and his family, all the teams had something more than just the week’s racing to reflect on at the end of the day.

BMC could feel satisfied on the whole with their performance throughout the week, notching up a top 15 place in the overall while many of their riders stayed active in the breaks during several stages.

On a day for the sprinters, plan on getting in the breaks

“Today our plan was to get into the breaks and keep Markus protected for the finale,” John Lelangue explained. The first breakaway which contained BMC neo-pro Chad Beyer escaped the pack very early in the stage and would not be finally pulled back in until there were only a handful of kilometers left in the race. “It was great to see Chad racing so well in his first professional event,” Lelangue said. “He inserted himself into the break on stage 1 and now on stage 6 he made the break again.” Though Beyer’s six man group gained nearly a six minute advantage at one point, they were almost joined by two more riders, including Beyer’s team mate Taylor Tolleson who countered the attack. “Taylor made a counter attack with a Japanese rider and they were going well until the Japanese rider had a puncture, forcing Taylor to drift back to the main group since there was no way he was going to be able to bridge up to the lead group alone,” Lelangue explained.

Sprinting against the best in the world

Once the lead group of six was swept up by the peloton, a mass gallop for the line became inevitable. “Markus did a nice sprint even if by finishing 13th he didn’t quite make it to our top 10 ambition,” Lelangue said. “But running down the list of sprinters at this year’s Tour of Qatar, only the purest, fastest sprinters are here and finishing ahead of us.” A gap in the peloton during the sprint also meant that Markus Zberg was able to move into the top 15 on the GC, an accomplishment they hadn’t really planned for today. “We didn’t think too much would happen in the GC movement, but to be top 15 is not too far from our overall objective,” Lelangue said. “Markus really impressed me in the way he rides like a leader, and the team did a great job of working for him.” In a race peppered with hazards, the team can be pleased to come away from the week having suffered no sever crashes or illnesses. “The team is riding really well and everyone feels healthy after this week of hard racing,” Lelangue confirmed.

Next up for BMC: the Tour of California

The BMC Racing Team will be staying in Qatar until Sunday when they will leave for Switzerland and points west. “We will spend the day Saturday training in good conditions and then the team will head back home,” Lelangue said. “Of our Qatar crew, only Markus Zberg will be also racing in California while the rest will be preparing for the various races on our Euro and American calendars.” With the sharpening focus the team has on gaining solid results, there is every expectation that the week in Qatar has laid the foundation for bigger things to come this season for BMC.