Tour of Qatar

The Tour of Qatar was an annual professional cycling stage race held in Qatar. First organized in 2002, the event was part of the UCI Asia Tour until 2016. The 2017 edition was to have seen the event upgraded to the UCI World Tour for the first time,[1][2] but it was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship support.[3]

Tour of Qatar
Race details
DateJanuary–February
RegionQatar
DisciplineRoad
TypeStage race
OrganiserAmaury Sport Organisation
Web sitewww.letour.fr/us/homepage_courseTQA.html
History
First edition2002 (2002)
Editions15 (as of 2016)
First winner Thorsten Wilhelms (GER)
Most wins Tom Boonen (BEL) (4 wins)
Most recent Mark Cavendish (GBR)

The event consisted of a men's competition over five stages, and, since 2009, a women's competition over four stages – held a week before the men's race. Because Qatar is entirely flat, the tour was almost always won by a sprinter or classics specialist. Belgian Tom Boonen and Dutchwoman Kirsten Wild hold the record with four overall wins, in the men's and ladies' competition respectively.

Men's past winners

General classification
Tom Boonen (pictured at the 2012 Tour of Qatar) holds a record 4 overall wins and 22 stage wins.
Year Country Rider Team
2002  Germany Thorsten Wilhelms Team Coast
2003  Italy Alberto Loddo Lampre
2004  South Africa Robert Hunter Rabobank
2005  Denmark Lars Michaelsen Team CSC
2006  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step–Innergetic
2007  Belgium Wilfried Cretskens Quick-Step–Innergetic
2008  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step
2009  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step
2010  Netherlands Wouter Mol Vacansoleil
2011  Australia Mark Renshaw HTC–Highroad
2012  Belgium Tom Boonen Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
2013  Great Britain Mark Cavendish Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
2014  Netherlands Niki Terpstra Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
2015  Netherlands Niki Terpstra Etixx–Quick-Step
2016  Great Britain Mark Cavendish Team Dimension Data

Points classification
Year Country Rider Team
2002  Germany Thorsten Wilhelms Team Coast
2003  Italy Alberto Loddo Lampre
2004  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step–Davitamon
2005  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step–Innergetic
2006  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step–Innergetic
2007  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step–Innergetic
2008  Belgium Tom Boonen Quick-Step
2009  Germany Heinrich Haussler Cervélo TestTeam
2010  Germany Heinrich Haussler Cervélo TestTeam
2011  Australia Heinrich Haussler[N 1] Garmin–Cervélo
2012  Belgium Tom Boonen Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
2013  Great Britain Mark Cavendish Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
2014  Belgium Tom Boonen Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
2015  Norway Alexander Kristoff Team Katusha
2016  Norway Alexander Kristoff Team Katusha

Stage wins
Rider Country Stages
Tom Boonen  Belgium 22
Mark Cavendish  United Kingdom 9
Alexander Kristoff  Norway 6
Alberto Loddo  Italy 3
Francesco Chicchi  Italy 2
Arnaud Démare  France 2
Heinrich Haussler  Australia
 Germany		 2
Robert Hunter  South Africa 2
Niki Terpstra  Netherlands 2
Thorsten Wilhelms  Germany 2

Ladies' past winners
Ladies Tour of Qatar
Race details
DateFebruary
RegionQatar
DisciplineRoad
TypeStage race
OrganiserAmaury Sport Organisation
Web sitewww.letour.fr/us/homepage_courseTQA.html
History
First edition2009 (2009)
Editions8 (as of 2016)
First winner Kirsten Wild (NED)
Most wins Kirsten Wild (NED) (4 wins)
Most recent Trixi Worrack (GER)
Eddy Merckx presenting Ellen van Dijk with the gold leader's jersey after the first stage of the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar.

General classification
Year Country Rider Team
2009  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Cervélo TestTeam
2010  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Cervélo TestTeam
2011  Netherlands Ellen van Dijk HTC–Highroad Women
2012  Germany Judith Arndt GreenEDGE–AIS
2013  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Argos–Shimano
2014  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Giant–Shimano
2015  Great Britain Lizzie Armitstead Boels–Dolmans
2016  Germany Trixi Worrack Canyon–SRAM

Points classification
Year Country Rider Team
2009  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Cervélo TestTeam
2010  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Cervélo TestTeam
2011  Netherlands Ellen van Dijk HTC–Highroad Women
2012  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Netherlands (national team)
2013  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Argos–Shimano
2014  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Giant–Shimano
2015  Great Britain Lizzie Armitstead Boels–Dolmans
2016  Netherlands Kirsten Wild Team Hitec Products

2017 Cancellation

The 2017 Tour of Qatar was scheduled to take place between 6 and 10 February 2017. However, in December 2016, the event was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship support.[5][6] It would have been the 16th edition of the race and third event of the 2017 UCI World Tour.[7] It was included in the UCI World Tour calendar for the first time.[1][2]

Notes
  1. Haussler announced he would give up his German citizenship and would ride for Australia in the future.[4]

References
  1. "UCI expands WorldTour to 37 events". Cycling News. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  2. "The UCI reveals expanded UCI WorldTour calendar for 2017". UCI. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  3. http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/uci-statement-tour-qatar/
  4. "TestTeam — News — Heinrich Haussler will race for Australia in the future — Cervélo". Cervelo.com. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  5. "UCI statement on Tour of Qatar". UCI. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  6. "Tour of Qatar and Ladies Tour of Qatar cancelled". Cycling News. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  7. "Tour of Qatar: 2017 edition of race is cancelled over lack of sponsorship". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
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