Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

Follow cyclingfans on Twitter and never miss a race.

- For satellite coverage of the Tour of Qatar, check out our cycling via satellite blog by MJ Ray here.

- Eurosport AUDIO feed in English is also LIVE with the race.  This feed can be combined with any of the video feeds by muting the audio on a video feed.

- Tour of Qatar LIVE now.  Links at right.  More to come.

- Links will be updated when Eurosport live coverage begins (details below).

- 2010 Tour of Qatar photos here and here.

- Today's Tour of Qatar Stage 2 departs Camel Race Track at 12:30pm local time (10:30 CET or 4:30am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at Qatar Foundation between 15:45 and 16:02 local time (between 13:45 and 14:02 CET (or between 7:45am and 8:02am U.S. Eastern)).  Tour of Qatar live coverage on Eurosport is scheduled to begin at 13:00 CET (7am U.S. Eastern).

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2010 Tour of Qatar.

 Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

Follow cyclingfans on Twitter and never miss a race.

- 2010 Tour of Qatar photos here and here.

- Monday's Tour of Qatar Stage 2 departs Camel Race Track at 12:30 local time (10:30 CET or 4:30am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at Qatar Foundation between 15:45 and 16:02 local time (between 13:45 and 14:02 CET (or between 7:45am and 8:02am U.S. Eastern)).  Tour of Qatar live coverage on Eurosport is scheduled to begin at 13:00 CET (7am U.S. Eastern).

- Stage 1 results here.  (partial, top 10 finishing teams and name of race leader)

- Multiple Tour of Qatar video feeds listed at right.  Note that feeds are behind the Eurosport France live coverage I'm watching on TV. -Pete

- Eurosport 2 streaming LIVE now.  Link at right.  Tour of Qatar should begin shortly.

- Eurosport's coverage of the Tour of Qatar this week is scheduled to alternate between the main Eurosport channel and Eurosport 2.  Depending on situations in other sports they are covering, it is possible they may unexpectedly switch Qatar coverage to the main Eurosport channel which has more viewers.  We are monitoring possible sources of live streaming video for both Eurosport and Eurosport 2 and will update here throughout the stage and each day of the race.

- Today's Stage 1 8.2km Team Time Trial at West Bay Lagoon is scheduled to get underway at 14:00 local time (12:00 CET, 6am U.S. Eastern).

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2010 Tour of Qatar.

2010 Etoile de Bessèges official poster

2010 Etoile de Besseges video highlights below

Stage 5 Sunday:  Gagnieres to Besseges, 145 km
Start time:  Neutral zone start at 12:55 CET (6:55am U.S. Eastern), race starts at 13:00 CET
Links below, including videos

Stage 4 Saturday:  Ales to Ales, 140.5 km
Start time:  Neutral zone start at 12:30 CET (6:30am U.S. Eastern), race starts at 12:40 CET
Links below, including videos

Stage 3 Friday:  Pont Saint Esprit to Bagnols sur Ceze, 148.3 km
Start time:  Neutral zone start at 12:20 CET (6:20am U.S. Eastern), race starts at 12:30 CET
Links below, including videos

Stage 2 Thursday: Nimes to Saint Ambroix 141.3 km
Start time: 13:00 CET (7am U.S. Eastern)
Weather: Rain
Links below, including videos

Montpellier (cyclingfans.com) - February 3, 2010: The European road racing season continues today with the start of the 40th edition of the Etoile de Bessèges here in the south of France.  Spectators should turn out in good numbers but there is no live television coverage.  The situation will be reversed next week at the Tour of Qatar where there will be at least limited live television coverage but not much in the way of spectators. As Bessèges race organizer Roland Fangille observed in today's L'Equipe, "In Qatar, not even a cat will be roadside to watch the race."  There will be camels, however, he noted.

And yet as recently as December 20, Fangille wasn't sure there would be an Etoile de Bessèges this year, with one race partner having departed and another having cut its financial support in half.  This desperate situation continues to repeat itself at races throughout France, including the Dauphine Libere which now is being taken over by Tour organizer A.S.O.  (And of course this is not limited to France.  In the U.S., the Tour de Georgia is "on hold" for another year, the future of the Tour of Missouri is again in question, and the Tour of California is moving to May in search of better days.)

For now anyway, the Etoile de Bessèges continues on.

More information and links (including video) as the race progresses.  -Pete

Official website (more or less)
Team Sky Besseges Race Guide

Live radio coverage
(French, brief hourly updates
from the race course after the news
at the top of each hour, not
continuous coverage)

Live text updates (infrequent)

Videos (more to come)
Stage 1 pre-race (19:20)
(France 3 regional noon news coverage from the start town of Aigues Mortes.  Most of the program is interviews and other race-related material, though there are several minutes of other news stories mixed in in a couple of spots.)

Stage 1 highlights
(skip ahead to around 15:54 in the news program for about 3 and a half minutes of coverage)
Alternative Stage 1 highlights (01:29)

Stage 2 highlights (05:08)

Stage 3 highlights (05:11)
(Thanks, Matt!)

Stage 4 highlights
(The race hits the climbs. Samuel Dumoulin wins
but is relegated for cutting the course in the final km.
Skip ahead to 04:53 in the news program and play to 07:42.)

Stage 5 highlights (02:40)

 (Thanks Bernie S. for video research)