BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: Algeria’s Azzedine Lagab yesterday produced a shock win at the Tour of Zubarah where defending champion Yusuif Mirza was left ruing a hip injury that killed his chances of landing a second successive trophy in Qatar.
Mirza, however, clinched the third and final stage of the four-day event with a slick finish opposite Zubarah Fort where Adria Mobil’s Primoz Roglic grabbed the second spot.
In third place was Uzbekistan’s Vadim Shaekhov.
Mirza yesterday clocked a time of 2 hours 44 minutes 46 seconds, a time shared by the top seven riders in stage three yesterday.
Lagab, who stunned with a stage win on Thursday, finished in 20th spot to secure his maiden triumph in Qatar.
The Algerian ended the tour with an overall time of 8:20.52 whereas Kristjan Fajt was 14 seconds adrift of the time set by Lagab.
Martin Weiss of Austria was 25 seconds off the pace set by Lagab.
“It was my first race in Qatar. We took the first stage and I wore the yellow jersey. I didn’t expect to keep it till the finish. But thank God, I gave it everything to keep my yellow jersey,” Lagab said after being crowned the champion.
“Yes, I can go on to win more races. There are a lot of races in January. I have another goal which is to do well in African Championship. Another one of my top races is in March - the Tour of Algeria,” Lagab added.
“It was a well organised race here in Qatar. It is different from my previous races. We faced a lot of crosswind,” the Algerian said.
Mirza, who won stage two on Friday, was a relieved man after nailing the white jersey.
The UAE rider was representing Team Giant GMS.
David Per of Adria Mobil secured the blue jersey.
“You see this (showing peeled skin on right hip), I did not recover well, but I am very happy. Sometimes you can’t control the things that are not in your hands. It is in God’s hands. But I am happy to do well with a new team. You (journalists) asked me on first day about my team,” Mirza said.
Mirza accumulated a tally of 52 points over four days.
“Now I have answered for my new team. I hurt myself on the first stage. It was windy and I went down. There was too much of a gap in stage one. I did well in the stages two and three (he won both). But I did well and I grabbed the white jersey.
“I beat my rivals in the sprints. I made a lot of effort. On the final sprint, I made a breakaway and won the final sprint. I got 15 points more in the general classification. I am still happy with white jersey,” Mirza said.
“All these points will help me in my qualification for Rio Olympics. I got 10 bonus points today. I got 10 points yesterday (Friday) and 8 in the prologue (on Wednesday). So I picked up 28 (bonus) points here. In Tour of Sharjah I got 40, so I have 68 points now. I am going in the right direction,” the 26-year-old added.
Qatar’s Afif Abdullah finished the third stage in 27th spot.
Branko Filip, the Qatar coach, said: “We knew we don’t have a chance in general classification. Here you need a strong team. Every rider here has a strong team. We didn’t focus on the team. Abdullah got a puncture 10kms from the finish.”
He added: “This event is very strong. We had the Algerian riders and some good names from Europe. All riders from the region were tired. Except Mirza, they were tired. We just had two-day rest after a 10-day event in Sharjah. I think we had too many tired riders. We had 14 starts in 18 days.” THE PENINSULA
