A tasty preview of the Spring ahead

There’s a lot to love about the racing at the Tour of Qatar. It’s a place where many of the superstars of the spring classics come to top-up their winter miles with some hard racing. More importantly, racing in the howling desert cross winds are the best rehearsal going around for the kind of bunch riding skills you need to sharpen-up to survive let alone win the likes of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. No surprise then, to see the likes of Boonen, Cancellara, O’Grady, Haussler and Flecha prominent at the pointy end of the race, especially on days like stage 3 above, where the cross winds were at their most difficult.

So how hard is it to master the art of the echelon? Very. While most social road cyclists will have mastered the art of swapping off turns into the wind on their regular bunch rides and club runs, very few of us have had the experience of forming an echelon and swapping off in a cross wind. Even the pros can get it wrong when they’re out of practice and that’s why they’re here. One mistake and you’re in the gutter and before you know it you’re out the back - your chance at bagging one of the jewels of the Spring gone.

So settle back and enjoy the video taster above. The Spring classics are only weeks away and by the looks of things we’re set for a cracking Spring in 2011.