BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff yesterday provided further proof of his good early season form when he outpaced Peter Sagan to grab the penultimate stage at Tour of Qatar weher Niki Terpstra (pictured below) retained his leader’s golden jersey for the second day running.
Kristoff, riding for Katusha, sealed his third stage win in Qatar as Terpstra consolidated his lead by finishing in 16th spot at the finish line in Madina Al Shamal.
Kristoff, who was thrilled with his form on Wednesday, yesterday edged Sagan of Tinkoff-Saxo in yet another hard-fought stage that began outside the preserved walls of the imposing Al Zubarah Fort.
The Norwegian cyclist finished the 153km stage with a time of 3 hours 3 minutes 01 seconds.
In the overall general classification, Terpstra is six seconds ahead of Poland’s Maciej Bodnar. Kristoff is 11 seconds behind the overall leader from the Netherlands.
Sagan, with four stages at the Tour of France in his young promising career, has managed two second-place and two fourth spot finishes in five days of racing in Qatar.
Kristoff was quick to give credit to his team after his stage win yesterday. Germany’s Nikias Arndt of Team Giant-Alpecin and four-time Tour of Qatar champion Tom Boonen of Etixx - Quick-Step finished yesterday’s stage five in third and fourth places respectively.
“The team brought me to the line perfectly,” Kristoff said.
“I wasn’t feeling great today and I was suffering. I didn’t think that I could win but at the end the team did a great leadout and they managed to take control even if we were lacking a few guys.
“I started in a perfect way but I knew that Sagan was looking fresh and on my wheel. Today the team was strong at the end and guys in the pack were tired because of the hard pace. The team brought me perfectly and we believed we could win,” he added.
Kristoff admitted he was surprised the way his started the 2015 season.
“I turned up here without any real ambitions, but three stage wins is really great and well above my expectations,” Kristoff said.
“My team put me in the perfect position, all I had to do was finish the job off. But I was extremely tired and could barely keep up the sprint to the line,” he added.
Earlier, windy conditions greeted the 139 remaining riders of the 14th edition of the Tour of Qatar when they gathered around the splendid Al Zubarah Fort for the start of stage five. As soon as the first kilometre, the Etixx Quickstep team accelerated and the pack broke up into several echelons.
Just under 40 riders were present at the front including Terpstra, Kristoff, Boonen and Sagan.
Several big names, however, were left stranded in the chasing group including the second rider overall Bodnar and Fabian Cancellara.
A tremendous battle went on between the two bunches at an average speed of close to 50km/h. The gap, however, never went over 35 seconds. Eventually, after 62 kilometres of an impressive combat, the peloton bunched up together.
Just a few kilometres later, five men managed to take off: Ben Hermans, Marco Haller, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Jens Wallays and Mathew Hayman.
This leading quintet enjoyed a 50-second advantage at the 80-km mark. At the first intermediate sprint (at the 87-km mark) won by Hayman ahead of Wallays and Gruzdev, the pack was 1’38 adrift. The gap reached a maximum 2’35 at the 102-km mark before the chase intensified.
At the second bonus sprint (at 126-km mark), claimed again by Hayman in front of Wallays and Gruzdev, the peloton had seriously closed in, 38 seconds adrift.
The front five were eventually caught at the 135-km mark with just over one lap to go.
At the end of the long straight in Madinat Al Shamal, Kristoff again proved he was the fastest sprinter of the bunch. Like on the previous day in Mesaieed, the Norwegian beat Sagan and Arndt to the line, capturing his third stage success this year.
Thanks to his victory, the winner of Milan – San Remo last year, moved up to third spot overall.
Finishing in the pack, Terpstra just about retained his leader’s golden jersey.
The white jersey for the best young rider changed shoulders and went to Sagan.
Today’s sixth and closing stage will take the riders from Sealine Beach Resort to 10 laps of Doha’s popular tourist spot Corniche.
The riders will complete a distance of 113.5kms.
THE PENINSULA
