Chicchi takes stage, Mol wins overall in Qatar. A farewell to the Belgium of the dunes.

Uhh, where's the podium girls?

Allah is great and so is cycling. Welcome back to the land of Q.

“Cyclists are few and far between in Doha [Qatar] even though it is flat, easy to navigate and not very big. Only the crazy driving makes it less than perfect for cycling says the travelerspoint web site.”

A true statement except during the Tour of Qatar when the top riders and teams show up to teach the cars and camels a few lessons. Today in stage 6, the finale of this year’s tour, it was Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) who instructed everyone on how to win a sprint finish.

After seven laps of a 6km circuit in downtown Doha, the Italian burst up the left side of the road when every other sprinter in the Middle East went right to cut the corner. On paper, the wrong decision but on the podium the right one, as he beat Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) and Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank).

“I stayed on the left because it was sheltered from the wind. I took a risk by doing that but everyone else went to the right to take the shortest line. I took the long way round and got it. I hit 74kpm, that’s how fast the sprint was,” said Chicchi.

“It’s usually harder for me to win high-speed sprints like this but Bennati sacrificed his chances to help me and I can only thank him.” Twisted Spoke thinks the duty free shop at the Doha airport might be an excellent place to pick up a thank-you gift for Bennati.

The big surprise was overall winner Wouter Mol of Vacansoliel, who finished in the bunch to win his first race of note. Combined with two wins by their sprinter Borut Bozic in Etoile de Besseges last week, Vacansoleil is off to a flying start. Chapeau, team of the Sunny Vacationers.

“I’m really happy now. I’m getting better as a rider. I’ve never done this kind of thing before, I hope I can do it some more times in the future,” said Wouter.

Much of the race from Al Wakra to Doha Corniche was animated by a four-rider break. Patrick Gretsch (HTC-Columbia), Martin Kohler (BMC), Niki Terpstra (Milram) and Australian Ben King (Trek-Livestrong) took off just 2.5km into the stage. Their lead went up to five minutes and then rewound to zero in the closing circuit.

And so we must bid a fond and dusty farewell to the Land of Q and the week-long cycling frenzy that turns the country into the Belgium of the sand dunes. To those who already feel the withdrawal pains, we say fear not. Thanks to the Sultanate of Oman, their tour begins in two days with an exciting twist: camels, sand dunes and … mountains.

Who needs Italy and Spain and France? The caravan to exotic capital city Muscat leaves tonight. Load the Pinarellos —  there’s not a moment to lose.

Micro-Frenchman Dumoulin wins stage three of Etoile de Besseges.

The mini-man of the moment.

Samuel Dumoulin is a pint sized pit-pull.

The diminutive rider is like the kid that never gets to ride the roller coaster because he’s still too small. At the ProTour races, Samuel appears out of place, a junior rider that crashed the party and hopes nobody notices he snuck in with the adults.

But give the micro- Frenchman who rides for Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne his due. In the uphill bunch sprint at stage three of the Etoile de Besseges, it was Dumoulin who knocked off Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) and Dutchman Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano).

The French police probably have a file on Dumoulin because he’s always on the attack. In the 2008 Tour de France he wonstage three from a small break. What he might lack in size or horsepower he seems to get back in race smarts and aggressive riding.

The 148-kilometre stage from Gran Prix du CC Rhone to Ceze-Languedoc was Samuel’s kind of race. Constant attacks from the gun. A 13 rider move went clear; when that failed, nine men launched another attack, failure again.

Finally, Sandy Casar (Francaise Des Jeux), Christophe Kern (Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne), Fabrice Jeandesboz (Saur – Sojasun) and Sander Armee (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) made a move that stuck. Succes, mes amis!

Then, with one finishing circuit of Ceze-Languedoc remaining, the peloton vac’d up the break and little Sammy began to think big.

Skil-Shimano and Borut Bozic’s Vancansoleil team fired up the locomotives but Dumoulin was the rider in charge. Uphill finish? That’s nothing, a man this size is always having to look up.

One thing is for certain, you Dumoulin looks significantly taller when he stands on a winners podium.

Bozic has deja vu all over again, wins stage 2 of Etoile de Besseges.

Two for Mr. B.

Eh bah, c’est deju vu, mon vieux.

How do you say groundhog day in French? Borut Bozic of the Sunny Vactionioners team (Vancasoliel) wore the same jersey, rode the same bike and got the same result, beating the same two guys in the sprint to St. Ambroix. This is his kind of vacation and the 40th edition of the Etoile de Besseges stage race is shaping up to be a Bozic favorite.

Who’s the big etoile? The star is slovenian Bozic who continues to impress fans and depress the other fast men. Two first place wins, two bottles of champagne and already, so early in the season, four podium girls, flowers and kisses.

Between Bozic and last year’s revelation Johnny Hoogerland, things look bright for the Sunny Vacationers. Directeur sportif Hilaire Van Der Schueren was obviously pleased the team executed his orders to the letter.

“All eight rode a perfect race and we were in control. The sprint train of Marco Marcato, Alberto Ongarato and Borut Bozic is having a great start of the season and they practice well to stay in front when competition grows in the upcoming weeks.”

The 29 year sprinter has the leader’s jersey, with time bonuses giving hims a 10-second advantage over Molmy and Eeckhout on general classification.

The race was aggressive from the start but nobody blew doors until the French duo of Laurent Lefevre from the B-b-beat box Bouygues Telecom team and Benoît Vaugrenard managed to jump clear after 40 kilometers — but a 2 minute gap was all they accomplished.

The chasers made the catch on the first of six 7.3-kilometre finishing circuits in St. Ambroix. Francaise Des Jeux’s Anthony Geslin and Yoann Offredo took solo shots at glory and were almost immediately slapped silly. They promised not to do that again in the near future.

The teams of the sprinters took firm control for the final three circuits and then it was replay, deja vu, double your pleasure time for Borut Bozic. Should he win tomorrow, somebody’s going to claim he’s ready to beat Mark Cavendish. A least in France in early February in the Etoile.

Etoile de Besseges. Borut Bozic and Vacansoleil shine in stage 1.

Bozic busts loose.

Score one for the Sunny Vacationers.

The team sponsored by the vacation company (Vancan, short for vacation, soliel, sun in French) won the first stage of the Etoile de Besseges. Slovenian Borut Bozic, operating on tired legs, still sprinted to the win over An Post-Sean Kelly team’s Niko Eeckhout and Frenchman Arnaud Molmy.

“It was more than perfect how the team rode today. It’s unbelievable that I already win right now, my teammates convinced me to participate in the sprint, as in my opinion I wasn’t good enough to do a sprint,” said Bozic.

Julien Loubet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Floris Goesinnen (Skil-Shimano) executed the break of the day at kilometer 18 and were soon in another time zone, gaining almost 10 minutes before the chase group got the wake-up call.

Française des Jeux and Vacansoleil ramped up the speed and made an earlier than expected catch with two circuits of 19.5 kilometers to go. Even the late arrival of guest Johan Coenen (Topsport Vlaanderen) only postponed the inevitable. Au revoir, Julien and Floris, you got your airtime on France 2 — see you at the bar at La Casqille.

Yes, it was all work for the Sunny Vacationers but the sun was in fact shining for the 146km race from Aigues Mortes to Le Grau du Roi. In the bunch sprint, Bozic put a stop to the FdJ train and its sprinter Sébastien Chavanel — who experienced the meager thrill of fourth place.

“This is surely not our last victory in the coming weeks. The leader jersey is a good support and I will see what is going to happen day by day,” said Bozic. Okay, big fella, rest up, vacation time now.

Vacansoleil 2010 roster: “we still have wacky names.”

That's a weird name. How do you spell that?

After an highly successful 2009 ProTour campaign, Vacansoleil has finalized their roster for the coming season.

Team manager Daan Luijkx admitted the departure of several riders was a serious blow as far as odd-ball names were concerned. “We lost Win, Gerben, Reinier, Thijs and Aart,” said the despondent Daan.

All was not lost, however,  as he signed Wouter Mol and Gorik Gardeyn. “We feel like this gives us a good mix of wacky Belgian names that cycling fans outside of Belgian will have trouble with or at least smile about,” said Luijkx.

“We’re strong across the board with nutty-sounding names to go along with Borut Bozic, Lieuwe Westra and and Wout Poels. We can guarantee our sponsors plenty of media exposure and amusing mispronunciations.”

Vacansoliel will face strong name competition from several teams, especially the Basque squads, who are capable of fielding tongue twisters like Gorka Verdugo, Inaki Isasi and Amets Txurrula.

Nevertheless, Vancansoleil’s Luijkx remains confident. “We will be stronger in 2010. The 2009 season is a fairytale and we have to work hard to do out-do our kooky names,” he said.

We say good luck in 2010, Daan. Last question — what’s with the extra “a” in Dan? Kinda kooky.