Dean aims for yellow

By Shane Stokes in Doha, Qatar

As David Millar suggested, Slipstream Chipotle team-mate Julian Dean will be aiming to take the race lead from Quick Step's Matteo Tosatto on Monday. The New Zealander is a fast finisher and told Cyclingnews after the team time trial that he will give it a shot.

"I've been doing a lot of travelling lately, going from New Zealand to Europe and then to here," he stated. "But despite that, my legs felt surprisingly good today. If they are the same tomorrow I will definitely give it a go."

Some were surprised that the USA team went so close to victory yesterday. He was not, and indeed was hoping for more than second place.

"We really believed [beforehand] that we could win today," he stated. "We came in fully prepared to try to win, knowing that a top three was achievable.

"It is a great start because we showed that we are up there with the top teams. At this time of the year, Quick Step is always the best team in the world. Everybody there is focussed on the Classics. But today we showed that we can be right up there."

He and the rest of the team will be doing their utmost on stage two to start the Argyle revolution.