Written by Jacek from Bywater CT
  
  Local Weather Report for: Perm, Russia
  Friday, Feb 11th, morning: sunny, -21°C
  Friday, Feb 11th, afternoon: mostly cloudy, -11°C
  Saturday, Feb 12th, morning: cloudy, -16°C
  Saturday, Feb 12th, afternoon: cloudy, -11°C
  
  These are expected weather conditions for 14th Perm Tour, second Top Division stage race of season 15. 120 riders from 20 teams will battle the winter and race each other. Top Division is a place only for cycling addicts, so noone was seen complaining, although rumours are that mechanics of a few teams work secretly on inventing a heated saddle. Let's see who will set out into frosty winter to take journey from Ochjor to Perm and complete it as quickly as possible.
  
   Bajen Belfast
  Aksana Putin, the only Russian rider in peloton, will ride his 5th Perm Tour. So far his best place was 9th and he hopes to improve it by solid performance on both climbing and time trial stage. The team will be really strong in the mountains, with Amadeu Brasil and Aron Zetterstrom also being amongst top climbers of the race, although not as good as Putin when riding against the clock. Sprinter Macario Arruti will look for his chance at flat stages, which means that Swedish team can make the headlines after any stage.
  
   Bilal
  Delrick Massart is the main star of Romanian team. He is a good sprinter and with whole team working for him he may become the hero of any flat finish. In the mountains Romanian team will probably save energy, unless someone decided it's too cold and he needs to climb to the top really quickly.
  
   Bywater CT
  Polish team promoted to Top Division after dominating Volta ao Porto. This will be their second tour. Winner from Porto, Kasper Czechowski, will compete in Perm as well, but it's still undecided if he'd ride on his own or help Zack Davie, who since Volta improved a lot and is still young enough to fight for white jersey.
  
   CCFC
  Norwegian team, currently ranked 2nd in OCM Tour, sends undisputedly the most star-filled lineup of the whole peloton. Current world champion Travis Plowman, Darell Randel (2nd in Volta and 3rd in Perm last season), Ralph van Bon (sprinter with 40 results in his career, currently in best form he ever had) - all those riders are expected to get results, each of them has chances to place high in GC, with van Bon being also main favourite of SC.
  
   Club Ciclista Riaza
  Main strength of this team is climbing. All riders signed up are strong in the mountains, with Isaak Papadimitriou and Lloyd Vonk being the best two. First is one of the favourites to the overall win, second to win the youth classification, if they manage to place high enough on time trial stage, they can achieve those aims.
  
   Equipo Easy On
  Leader of OCM ranking sends sprint- and ITT-oriented team to Perm. Stage 3 may look similarly as Rennes TT race, with numerous EEo riders in top ten. Clarence Caraway, Germany Tour SC winner, will

try to win the same classification also here, he is in worse form than Ralph van Bon, but has better support for sprints.
  
   Fairfield Flyers Cycling
  Vernon Kings, leader of American team, will try to find the form from seasons 11 and 12, when he was great in tours, finishing high in Porto, Essex, Germany and Perm. So far his season was a bit disappointing, with broken streak of podium finishes in Salles-sur-Verdon ITT, his favourite race. Next few days will show if he's back in good form.
  
   Il Grillo
  Many call Frank van Galen the best climber of the world and he definitely will be top favourite of stage 2. But to win the tour he must also get good time on ITT and this is where he'd have his hardest time this race. If he feels great Saturday morning, he will finish the race high. Osvald Beyer may also look for a result, especially on the opening hilly stage.
  
   Legia
  Polish team rides with nearly exactly the same lineup that was quite successful in Volta, when 3 riders (Garcia Dabino, Adnan Ayyub and Radek Lukaszewski) finished in GC top 10, while Pascal Juszczak won one of the sprints. All four will be in Perm as well, though in a bit worse form, together with their team mate Tadeo Carriedo. Dabino looks the strongest for GC, as he not only is strong in the mountains, but a lot better than most of the team on time trials. With one exception: Prospero Quino Mardomingo. Young Spaniard, who has just started his high level career, is not only skilled, but also in great form, which he shown placing 3rd in Clash of Nations Washington TT race. If he repeats this in Perm ITT, he may become a competitor for the white jersey.
  
   Monkeys United
  Xander-Paul Stuyck is another great young TTer who will try to win youth classification, hoping he will gain more on stage 3 than lose in the mountains. Remaining places in the team are filled with sprinters, out of which Robert Galagan looks the best and he may look for his moment on stage 4 if he manages to stay fit until the end of the race.
  
   peddelen
  This Dutch team, similarly to Monkeys United, consists of 5 sprinters and a TTer. Ewout van Heiningen, with his current great form, is amongst the favourites of stage 3, while Jan-Joost Dussel will aim at the blue jersey of best sprinter - he looks strong both for first and last stage and with team's support he may challenge van Bon.
  
   Pomada
  Tulio Tuero is captain of the team and he is very efficient lately. He took part in 6 races so far this season and always finished in top 6, though he still lacks a win. Will it come at Ochjor-Perm stage? That's quite possible, unfortunately lack of TT skills means that Tuero will have a very hard time trying to finish whole tour on the podium.
  
   radu
  5 sprinters and a TTer is quite popular lineup for this tour and team from Slovakia also follows this pattern. Rogerio Nadol is in top form and will chase the blue jersey, while Kurt

Spohn, winner of last season's Nederlandse Tour TT, will seek his chance riding on his own around Perm.
  
   Red Star
  Norwegian team will seek their chances at every stage and with many different riders. They have William Dabrowski for hills, Kaseem Abdul-Halim for climbs, Jan Ness for ITT (this rider is a really young one, which makes him a major YC contender) and Melor Borisova for the final sprint. Time will tell if such diversity is the key to success.
  
   redop
  After signing a contract with Yasunari Yamauchi just a few days ago, Portuguese team earned a nickname of "two-headed monster", with Vasco Assis being the other head. But given the current form of Zacarias Semedo, the monster has 3 heads now, aiming at 3 different jerseys. If Yamauchi can ride the TT well, Assis recovers after an unsuccessful Volta and Semedo doesn't loose too much energy helping the other two, this team may be one of the most successful in Perm.
  
   Rode Stier
  Dutch team will ride here in a very similar lineup to this from Volta. At that race Fidel Mora was most successful, with 4 top 9 finishes including a 2nd place in Vinhais. This time the first stage looks best for him, while You Yi and Joost Teesing will seek their chances in the mountains.
  
   Siporex
  This team is focused entirely on climbing and will do their best for Dino Halil, experienced tour rider but so far without results in stage races, to gain as much time, as possible, on the hardest climbs of the race. If they succeed and Halil finds his form on Saturday morning, the 31 year old Italian may finally finish a tour high in GC.
  
   Team iPower
  If somene grows a head, someone other must have it cut. Yasunari Yamauchi was riding for Danish team for 3 seasons, now his transfer to redop leaves Christoph Frish as a clear team leader and he looks good. Last season he was just outside top 10, with everyone working for him now this may easily be better. He is not far both from best climbers and TTers, will this turn out to be the winning mix of skills?
  
   Torreira
  Portuguese sprinting team is led by experienced Meine Berkhout. He's got great supporting riders, including young, very talented and still improving Angelo Bazan. Such a strong team, focused entirely on a single aim, can be a threat even to van Bon's perfect form.
  
   Yuri Super Team
  Russian fans, not having a team from their country good enough to compete in Top Division races, were looking forward to see the Portuguese squad competing. Their signup caused excitement first, but a lot of uproar afterwards, when it turned out that Patya Gordeyeva, best Russian sprinter, not only won't lead the team, but he will stay home or race somewhere else. Essex Tour winner still has not raced in his home country even once, his team mates, led by Marinus van Someren and Ramiro Carrilho, will surely not be local fans' favourites. Still, their chances for sprint stages look quite well.