Bradley Wiggins to debut rainbow jersey at the Tour of Qatar; team list confirmed

World time trial champion Bradley Wiggins is set to begin his final road season at the Tour of Qatar on February 8. The 2012 Tour de France winner will debut his rainbow jersey in the stage 3 ITT.

Wiggins was initially thought to be starting his year at the Challenge Mallorca this week, but he will instead line up in Qatar alongside the likes of Tom Boonen (Etixx–Quick-Step), Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing), Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).

After riding the six-stage UCI 2.HC event, Wiggins will head to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in preparation for the cobbled classics in April.

The 18 teams for the 2015 Tour of Qatar, which runs from February 8-13, are: Astana, Bardiani CSF, BMC, Bora-Argon 18, Cofidis, Etixx-Quick-Step, FDJ, Giant-Alpecin, IAM Cycling, Katusha, Lampre-Merida, Movistar, MTN-Qhubeka, Orica-GreenEdge, Team Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo, Topsport Vlaanderen Baloisea and Trek Factory Racing.

Click here to read more at Cycling Weekly. Click here for the provisional startlist.

Kirsten Wild to skip the Ladies Tour of Qatar

Four-time winner and defending champion of the Ladies Tour of Qatar, Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products), will miss this year’s edition of the race after deciding to focus on her track racing ahead of the world championships in February.

Wild has won a total of nine stages at the Ladies Tour of Qatar and came away with overall victories in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014. Her absence at this year’s race — which will be held over four stages from February 3 to February 6 — opens up the race considerably to other sprinters.

The likes of Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur), Leah Kirchman (Optum p/b Kelly Benefits) and Shelley Olds (Bigla) will be among the favourites in the sprint finishes, but it is the Wiggle Honda team that will go into the race with the most options. The team has three big-name sprinters in the race — Chloe Hosking, Giorgia Bronzini and Jolien d’Hoore — and all are more than capable of winning stages and the sprinter-friendly race overall.

Click here to see the full startlist for the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar.

Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot to race MTB World Cups

Three-time world road champion Marianne Vos (Rabo Liv) is set to race a handful of MTB events in 2015 in the hope of qualifying for the Netherlands in mountain biking events at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Vos’ teammate, and reigning world road champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot will take a similar path, albeit racing for her native France where she is the reigning road race, time trial, cyclocross and MTB national champion.

Vos and Ferrand-Prevot will balance their off-road ambitions with the road season.

“We’re going to do it again,” Marianne Vos said Emmen, at the 2015 team launch. “All of the races aren’t in [our plan]. We will still watch out for overloading and chose only to race the World Cup events Europe.

“I have an Olympic start in mountain biking is still in my head. It’s a great fun sport and I feel very at home.”?

Click here to read more at the Rabo Liv website.

SRAM’s wireless electronic groupset to be called eTap?

The rumour mill continues to turn with regard to SRAM’s wireless electronic groupset, which is expected to be getting an official launch in the not-too-distant future.

The shifters are reportedly powered by a conventional button-style CR2032 battery, rather than any kind of rechargeable option.

Cyclingnews and Bike Radar report that the new shifter setup will likely be called ‘eTap’ or ‘ETAP’, a play on SRAM’s DoubleTap and maybe a subtle nod to the French word for stage: “etape”. To quote Cyclingnews:

“
SRAM will introduce a new shifter actuation with the new Red wireless electronic group called ‘eTap’. Shifts are performed in the manner we disclosed previously with each lever bearing a single, one-stage button. Push on one lever’s shift button to move the rear derailleur in one direction, or push the button on the other lever to move the chain in the opposite direction. Front gear changes are accomplished by pushing both buttons at roughly the same time.

Click here to read more at Bike Radar.

Behind the scenes of Road Bike Party 3

If you didn’t already watch Road Bike Party 3 towards the end of last year, you really should. Since that video was released, there have been a couple of behind-the-scenes videos that have also come out.

Here’s one showing just how difficult some of the stunts in the video are to pull off:

And here’s one of the bike featured in the video being built up:

One very lucky cyclist

This woman might want to think about buying a lottery ticket.

A ride with Shimano Neutral Service

Here’s a video we shot during last week’s Tour Down Under, from the front seat of one of the Shimano Neutral Service vehicles.

Check out the full article here.

What You Missed

And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips in the past few days:

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Today’s feature image comes from Jered Gruber.