Team Sky rider Edvald Boasson Hagen will come away with the win in the final stage of the Tour of Qatar, as team senior sports director Scott Sunderland believes. If Sunderland proves to be correct, the Norwegian star will then net his first season victory for 2010.

Hagen finished in third place in the fifth stage of the Qatar tour. Tom Boonen of Team Quick Step and Danilo Napolitano of Team Katusha got the first and second spots, respectively. Sunderland explained that Hagen’s third-place finish was a result of being “hemmed in” by the two other riders, thereby denying their rider to go out and grab the win.

Team Sky had to work hard to pull back the breakaways in the race and put Hagen in a position to win, and Sunderland credits them for their effort. “They did the job they had to do and Edvald almost…

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Team Milram received more bad news today as news got out about their rider Gerald Ciolek being out of competition for at least two months, after crashing at the end of the 3rd stage of the Tour of Qatar and sustaining more injuries than was originally thought.

The initial diagnosis after the mass crash revealed that the German rider suffered a broken collarbone, but after returning to Germany, doctors there uncovered additional injuries such as a separated right shoulder and a fractured scaphoid bone in his wrist. These injuries will put Ciolek out of commission for at least two months.

Ciolek will be undergoing surgery at the Vinzenz Pallotti Hospital. Light training will begin after an estimated three weeks, and optimistic estimates say that he will be able to return to competition at the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt event.

Gerry van Gerwen, the Milram team manager, says that…

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Taylor Phinney of Team Trek-Livestrong is currently showing off his speed and skills at the 2010 Tour of Qatar, finishing among the top ten for the second time in a row. He finished the third stage last Tuesday in 7th place and placed 8th on Wednesday, proving that he is capable of matching the best riders in the world, despite his young age.

Phinney, who is currently racing for Trek-Livestrong at the age of 19, is riding against some of the world’s best sprinters, but he is not exhibiting any signs of being intimidated at all. The last two stages, in fact, proves that the young cyclist is more than capable of riding successfully at breakneck speeds.

Some detractors may have called it luck when he finished in the top ten on the second stage, but repeating the feat at the next stage may have shut them up. …

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Italian rider Giorgia Bronzini is now the overall race leader in the Women’s Tour of Qatar after taking the win in the second stage of the event. She previously finished second in the first stage.

Bronzini, the current world points race champion, had to contend with a bunch of sprinters plus a very windy race day on the second stage of the tour. Windy conditions on the Tour of Qatar were commonplace, but this time the gusts were so strong that race officials had to shorten the stage from 107km down to only 86km.

The strong winds also kept the riders from making any real headway until the first intermediate sprint at Al Ghuwairiya. Team Cervelo’s Kirsten Wild, the defending champion, managed to sprint ahead from Monique Van De Ree of Netherlands and teammate Sarah Düster, but the actual breakaways did not start until after 50km into the race.

Latoya…

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The start lists for both the 2010 Tour of Qatar and the new Tour of Oman are filling up with a lot of big-name pro-tour riders. The change in climate could be one of the reasons, but one thing is certain: it’s still early in the season, and these riders are looking to fine-tune their form in preparation for more events later this year.

The Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), race organizer for both events, have released the start lists for the Qatar and Oman tours, showing off top-notch cycling talent belonging to at least ten ProTour teams, including the under-23 Trek-Livestrong team.

Last season’s overall winner in the Tour of Qatar, Tom Boonen, will be sporting number one for this year’s race. Boonen has been in dominant form in this event since the inaugural edition, and he will be going after his 3rd conscutive (and 4th overall) win.

Team Sky has…

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