Tour Méditerranéen

This is unheard of, a possibility of 4 Scots taking part in a famous race on the continent, against Pro-Tour competition!

By the looks of the Endura website the team will consist of Scots Evan Oliphant, Gary Hand, James McCallum & Ross Creber, along with Welshman Rob Partridge and England's Ian Wilkinson & the teams highest profile rider Rob Hayles.

Now to get an idea of the level of event this is, a simple team list should provide enough information on the task that's being taken on (see below). This is no soft entry level race and certainly not a training race these days, this is the real thing and the competition includes some of the worlds best riders, who won't be wanting any of the smaller teams to make them look human.

CAISSE D'EPARGNE (ESP)
ASTANA (KAZ)
RABOBANK (NED)
GARMIN SLIPSTREAM (USA)
SKIL SHIMANO (BEL)
AQUA-SAPONE (ITA)
ENDURA (GB)
VACANSOLEIL (NED)
AG2R LA MONDIALE (FRA)
BOUYGUES BOX (FRA)
COFIDIS (FRA)
FDJEUX (FRA)
SAUR-SOJASUN (FRA)
BRETAGNE SHULLER (FRA)
ROUBAIX METROPOLE (FRA)
AUBER 93 (FRA)
MICHE (ITA)

What is expected of the Endura team? Well, hard riders such as Wilkinson & Oliphant and any of the others are capable of getting in the breaks, we've seen Hayles take on the best riders in the past, winning a sprint in the Kellogs Tour some time ago. If they can set Jamesy up, can he get up there in a final sprint? This is all new to everybody, but if the guys show themselves in the race on a similar level with the French continental teams, that would be an excellent result in itself. Any home grown team with these kinds of ambitions deserves our support, it takes guts to go to a race like this, even more to relish it, the experience should help them move up a level, so for me there are no down sides to this, a seriously positive move from a forward looking and ambitious team.

I wish Team Endura all the best for the event next week, I'll be following it closely.