Qatar’s director of sports, John Lelangue, says the Worlds course that will be previewed during next weeks Tour of Qatar, is like a maze and has lots of changes of direction.

“We have a worlds circuit that constantly changes direction,” Lelangue told VeloNews. “You will always have to be in the front to relaunch after each change of direction.”

The men will also spend some time out in the desert, where high winds may play a role like they do each season in the stage race. 

“It depends on the wind, if it is windy like today, it could be really challenging,” Lelangue said before the second stage at the Ladies Tour of Qatar, which saw the group shattered after 1km because of wind. “It could be cross-winds, it depends on where the wind will be. The last two years, in the same period, it was really windy. Will it be windy in October 2016? I don’t have any guarantees.”