ASO have announced the teams that will participate in the traditional preparation races Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman. The teams of defending champions Niki Terpstra and Chris Froome will both be returning in 2015.
The Tour of Qatar which will be held between February 8 and 13, will have 18 teams at the start, including 12 teams from the WorldTour.
The 18 selected teams are: Orica-GreenEdge, Etixx-Quick Step, Movistar Team, BMC Racing Team, Trek Factory Racing, FDJ, Lampre-Farnese Vini, Sky, Astana, Team Giant-Alpecin, Katusha and Tinkoff-Saxo(WorldTour); MTN-Qhubeka, Bora-Argon 18, Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, Cofidis, Bardiani-CSF and IAM Cycling (Professional Continental).
On February 17, the same 18 teams will be at the start of the 6th Tour of Oman. Both races are organized by Tour de France organizers ASO but are very different. While the race in Qatar is predominantly flat and suits the classics riders, the Tour of Oman has been dominated by climbers. In 2014, Niki Terpstra won in Qatar while Chris Froome took the overall win in Oman.
The 5 WorldTour teams that won't be at the start in the Middle East, are Cannondale-Garmin, Lotto-Belisol, Ag2r-La Mondiale, LottoNL-Jumbo and Team Europcar.
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