For the third year running, it will be in Qatar that the cycling season will kick off for fifteen of the best cycling teams in the world. Qatar with its sun, seaside, uncluttered roads and top quality hotel accommodation.

Rarely has a competition as young as this conquered participants and international sporting authorities so quickly. Indeed, to such an extent that, at the request of the Qatar government, it will no longer be one but two races that will be held in January/February 2004.

The first novelty is that the corniche of Doha will set the stage for a new race, the "Doha International Grand Prix" this week, a debut for some top-level cycling.

Then, after a day of rest, the third edition of the Tour of Qatar with its five stages will take over. Five stages however – and this is new – that will not always return to Doha, but on the contrary, that finish at some of the most remarkable tourist sites in the country.

As before, the expertise of the Tour de France (which received Qatar's leaders in 2003) and the reputation of Eddy Merckx in cycling will help to confirm the increasingly prominent place the Tour of Qatar is assuming in the cycling world : the selection of fifteen teams of eight racing cyclists is not that easy though!

Television and top European reporters are in agreement : the road to top cycling now passes through the Middle East and the state of Qatar!