Cucinotta wins Ladies Tour of Qatar opener

“Regardez le vent,” Jean-François says he casts his eyes to the Qatari skies minutes before the opening stage. A driver at the Ladies Tour of Qatar, Jean-François Rodriguez, to give him his fuller title, knows a few things about riding on the front in difficult conditions. The 57-year-old was a domestique for Hinault and Fignon at Renault and Système U in the 1980s and was a directeur for Bbox Bouygues Telecom up until a few years ago. As the women’s field lined up with the Museum of Islamic Art behind them Jean-François repeated his words, ‘watch for the wind.”

The Frenchman’s advice looked vital as the women’s field rolled out through the neutralized zone and towards the finish at Dukhan Beach, 98 kilometres away. A breeze blew across the wide expansive roads and threatened to kick the race into life as soon as the flag was dropped.

However, as the race wound its way east and further inland the winds dropped, and any chance of formal hostilities were squared away for another day.

There was, of course, still the matter of a stage to win, the final honours going to Annalisa Cucinotta (Ale-Cipollini) after a scrappy, and at times dangerous sprint, as well as two vital intermediate sprints to determine who would come away from the first day with their overall aspirations boosted. But with the winds easing and the threat of cross-winds dissipating, the opening stage turned into a phoney war, where avoiding crashes and survival were key.

It took almost roughly an hour of racing before the first notable attack arrived. Xiu Jie Jiang and her China Chongming-Liv-Champion System teammates were the first to arrive at the start, and the first to check and double check their bikes at the start of the race and their intentions paid off with Jiang’s move.

She attacked after Shelley Olds had beaten Chloe Hosking and Lizzie Armistead at the first intermediate sprint after 28 kilometres, and the Chinese rider’s insistence on ploughing on alone helped her establish a lead approaching 90 seconds as she broke through the 55 kilometre barrier.

Qatar’s landscape, with its long gleaming stretches of motorway, meant that Jiang was never far out of sight, and a patchwork of teams carefully monitored proceedings at the front.

In the convoy, Jean-Francois, who now drives Hinault at major races, would listen intently as the race radio crackled through with information. Bar the odd crash, Hosking, Tiffany Cromwell, and Sharon Laws, were among those that hit the deck, there was little to report.

The wind remained subdued, the landscape desolate and even the towering skyscrapers that litter the centre of Doha seemed to just reflect their own empty existences off each other.

A dot on the horizon, Jiang, legs like pistons, kept her advantage intact, even gobbling up the three seconds on offer at the second sprint at 68 kilometres. Once again Olds had the better of Armitstead, while Hosking’s crash meant that Girorgia Bronzini would be elevated to Wiggle’s lead sprinter come the finale.

With Jiang eventually caught, just after the sprint in fact, all eyes turned to the flat final run-in to the beach.

Wiggle, Ale-Cipollini, Bigla, Velocio-SRAM, and Rabo-Liv Women all launched their lead-outs but through a sprint that was rather more staccato than legato, it was Ale-Cipollini who shone through, with Cucinotta and Tagliaferro sandwiching Bronzini in second.

"We are very satisfied" said Ale-Cipollini director Fortunato Lacquaniti. "We are happy not only for the first and third position, but also for all the work we have done. We have been protagonist during the race. Annalisa made a wonderful sprint, also thanks to the work done by the whole team. This is the victory of the whole team."

As for Jean-Francois, his advice to watch for the winds will surely pay off in the coming days.

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