By Rizwan Rehmat
DOHA: British cycling star Mark Cavendish yesterday battled to a second spot in the fifth and final stage at Tour of Qatar where the Dimension Data rider protected a narrow overnight lead to emerge as the overall champion for the second time.
The 30-year-old finished a notch behind chief rival Alexander Kristoff who bagged his third stage win in five days but could not stop Cavendish from winning his second Tour of Qatar title in four years.
Kristoff, riding for Team Katusha, won the high-speeds sprint at the finish line opposite the sea-front at Doha Corniche where strong chilly winds made life difficult for the group of 130 riders.
Cavendish picked up a six-second time bonus for his second place finish. Yesterday’s shoulder-to-shoulder finish was reminiscent of how Kristoff edged Cavendish in stage two on Tuesday.
Trailing by 9 seconds at the start of yesterday’s dodgy stage hit by strong winds, Kristoff cut down his time gap to finish 5 seconds behind Cavendish in the overall classification.
BMC rider Greg Van Avermaet (8 seconds behind), team-mate Manuel Quinziato (12 seconds) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (25 seconds) grabbed the third, fourth and fifth spots respectively in the general classification.
Belgium’s Roy Jans (Wanty - Groupe Gobert), Belarussian Yauheni Hutarovich (Fortuneo - Vital Concept) and Italy’s Sacha Modolo (Lampre - Merida) completed the top-five riders in the fifth and final stage.
Cavendish’s team-mate Boasson Hagen - who was set to consolidate his golden jersey lead during the fourth stage but slipped back because of punctured tyres - yesterday wound up his Qatar trip in 8th spot in the final stage.
Experienced Cavendish was expertly guided by Mark Renshaw and Boasson Hagen just 200 meters off the finish line when the Briton shadowed Kristoff with purpose before settling for the second spot in the 114-km stage.
In what was a gladiatorial contest between Cavendish and Kristoff throughout the week, it was the final stage finish that helped the Briton to seal his second win in the desert.
Cavendish, however, was quick to admit it was his team-mate and golden jersey winner on Wednesday - Boasson Hagen - who deserved to win the race.
Boasson Hagen suffered a couple of punctures on Thursday to lose ground on his rivals at the five-day race.
“Obviously, it’s nice to be wearing gold now, but I know I am only wearing it on behalf of Edvald,” Cavendish said.
“He only lost it because of bad luck and not through any other kind of cause. He should be the guy wearing this gold jersey, but we are just super happy to keep it in Team Dimension Data,” Cavendish said about his team-mate.
“We were really motivated for today and I have won this stage before a couple of times. The lads did it perfectly on the final laps when it was hectic, keeping me in the front and out of danger, so I was ready for the sprint,” the Briton said.
Taking off from the Sealine Beach Resort, south of the nation, 130 remaining riders took off for the 114.5-km ride to the Doha Corniche.
After only 5 kilometres, three men managed to break away: Steven Tronet (FVC), Bart De Clercq (TSV) and Jesse Sergent (ALM). Their advantage reached 52’’ over counter-attacking rider Brian Van Goethem (ROP) and 2’20’’ over the pack.
Fifteen kilometres later, while the first chasing rider was caught, the gap grew to 2’25’’ at the 28km mark and even a maximum 4’ at km 40.
Under the control of teams Katusha and Dimension Data, front rider still enjoyed a comfortable lead before arriving on the final circuit.
The first intermediate sprint of the day (4th crossing of the line, at the 74.5-km mark), was won by Sergent in front of Tronet and De Clercq as the main bunch remained 2’15’’ adrift.
Apparently not interested by the bonus seconds up for grabs at the second intermediate sprint, team Katusha let the front men battle it out by themselves.
Indeed the 8th crossing of the line (97.5km mark), De Clercq won the sprint ahead of Sergent and Tronet while the pack was still 28’’ adrift. The first man to be caught was Tronet at the 104km mark while the remaining two leaders were gobbled up by the pack with just under two laps to go. The pack remained bunched all the way the final straight.
As expected a royal sprint took place between the two fastest men of the peloton: Cavendish vs Kristoff and it was finally the Norwegian who outsprinted his main rival, crossing the line with a whisker ahead of the Briton.
Like a year ago, Kristoff again won three out of five stages on the Tour of Qatar but still missed out on overall glory. Danish rider Soren Kragh Andersen finished as the best young rider (pearl white jersey) while BMC claimed the team classification.
Kristoff said wind was a major factor in the peloton splitting into groups.
“In the first part of the race it was not windy, but later the wind became stronger,” Kristoff said.
““That sprint was pretty hectic. A lot of teams were trying to take the lead. We did actually a very good job all day,” Kristoff said.
“I want to thank my team, it was a great day for us – all guys did a fantastic job both during the stage in every dangerous moment and at the end,” the Norwegian said.
The Peninsula
