With the inclusion of a 10.9km time trial, Fabian Cancellara (Trek) had potentially the best ever chance of taking the overall win in the Tour of Qatar but he was dealt a serious blow when a group of good time trialists stayed away to the finish in the opening stage. Admitting that the team should have been better, sports director Dirk Demol insists that it wasn't up to his team to chase.

With 5 flat, windy stages suited to the strongest classics specialists and the novelty of a 10.9km time trial, the Tour of Qatar seemed to be the perfect race for Fabian Cancellera. The Swiss showed solid condition in the Dubai Tour but after one stage the overall win is maybe already beyond his reach.

On the opening day, Cancellara made it into the 22-rider front echelon when the peloton split in the first half of the stage but he could later see a strong 5-rider break slip away when things had come back together near the end. Several teams combined forces to chase but the strength of Niki Terpstra, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Martin Elmiger, Jurgen Roelandts and Michael Schär was too much and they stayed away to the finish.

Terpstra, Schär and Elmiger are all known as strong time trialists and now find themselves with a significant advantage over Cancellara. The team had lost most of its riders in the early selection but the Swiss still had Markel Irizar and Yaroslav Popovych at his disposal. Nonetheless, Trek didn't lend the chase a hand.

Sports director Dirk Demol insists that the team had made the tight decision.

“It was not up to us to close the gap, as we do not have a sprinter,” he said. “Terpstra has taken a lot of time today with the lead at the line and the bonification seconds he won. It is possible that the GC could be over already, although tomorrow could be another surprise, of course.

Demol regrets that most of the team's riders missed out when the going got tough in the crosswind.

“We can’t say it was a great day for us. Fabian made the first echelon, which was good, and it was a hard start for the first race of the year for the rest of the team, but we need to be a bit better in the next days.”

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