By Rizwan Rehmat
DOHA: Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff yesterday closed gap on golden jersey owner Mark Cavendish with a daredevil surge to win stage two at Tour of Qatar.
Overnight leader Cavendish rode like the wind near the finish line drawn close to the entrance of the College of the North Atlantic but Kristoff of Team Katusha edged the British rider to win in a time of 3 hours 11 minutes and 26 seconds.
It was the fourth stage win for Kristoff in Qatar.
Cavenidish, winner in 2013, struggled to break free of the final brunch but once he weaved his way through, it was a battle between him and Kristoff which the Katusha rider sealed with a final lunge finish.
Belgium’s Roy Jans (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) and compatriot Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) completed the top five in stage two that saw riders cycle through route of the 2016 UCI World Road Championships.
Cavendish now leads Kristoff by 5 seconds in the general classification.
Italian rider Sacha Modolo (Lampre - Merida), who finished in second spot on Monday, is 14 seconds adrift of golden jersey star Cavendish. Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) is 18 seconds behind Cavendish in General Classification (GC). “The team did a great job on the lead-up. It was a great day. I am happy I held off Cavendish. It was one of the closest sprints I had. I was not sure I took it. Maybe it was just a few centimetres. So yeah, it was really close,” Kristoff said.
“I knew I would have a shot today. He really crushed me yesterday (Monday). I wasn’t sure if I would manage to do it today,” the Norwegian said.
“It’s quite hectic. There are a lot of corners and u-turns. I think the challenge will be managing the corners,” he said.
“It was looking hectic in the paper and it was indeed very hectic,” Kristoff said. “I didn’t notice the crash near the finish line,” Kristoff said when asked about the crash seconds before the end of the stage.
“Tomorrow is another day. I am not good at time trial. So we will see how it goes,” he said.
“I am up there in the lead. So we will try to do well. I know I won’t do well in the time trial but we will see how we do in the next stage,” he said.
Facing the wind, the first part of the stage was rather slow. After only two kilometres, four men managed to break away from the pack: Lieuwe Westra, Preben Van Hecke, Gediminas Bagdonas and Brian van Goethem. The gap rapidly grew and reached 1’30” at 25km.
But after a change in direction, heading back south, the pace dramatically changed and the pack broke up into several groups. While the front four were caught at the 35km mark, just over 20 men powered away at the front. Among the group were the likes of Kristoff, Boasson Hagen, Bennett, Guardini and Hofland. At the first intermediate sprint (39km mark), claimed by Kristoff ahead of Boasson Hagen and Kuznetsov, the chasing bunch including Cavendish and Modolo were 14 seconds adrift.
That gap grew to 50’’ as the leaders entered the Pearl World Championship circuit (79km).
Eventually, the golden jersey group managed to catch up with the front group and the pack bunched up at 84km.
That was the moment chosen by two men to take off: Preben Van Hecke, again, and Gatis Smukulis. The second bonus sprint set on the finish line of the next ‘Worlds’ was won by Van Hecke ahead of Smukulis while the peloton led by Boasson Hagen, third, remained 43’’ adrift.
The front duo’s advantage reached a maximum 1’ lead at km 110 before teams Dimension Data, BMC and Katusha started chasing them down. They were eventually caught at 125km.
After exiting the Pearl circuit, the pack remained bunched all the way to the final straight by the Qatar University.
On the slightly uphill sprint, several riders, including Guardini (AST), Brown (DPC) and best young rider Andersen (TGA) suffered a crash. That didn’t prevent the big guns to battle it out for victory. Well led out by his Katusha boys, Kristoff only just managed to capture the win, beating Cavendish to the line by just a few inches.
Cavendish said he wasn’t disappointed with his performance on day two of the five-day event.
“I am happy to keep it but it was a difficult stage,” Cavendish said. “There was headwind but nothing on my side and Alex had it. It was a good, long sprint. We were two in the front, in the last couple of hundred meters. I am not disappointed in this race with Alex,” Cavendish said.
“I think so but it is not exactly a team effort. I think everybody’s got a good shot. Hopefully we can keep the golden jersey. It was windy like we knew it would be. The wind was coming from a different direction.”
“I don’t think final circuit will cause any splits. You will be tired though. It is difficult wherever you are,” he said.
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