Boonen wins in Mesaieed

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Quick Step's Tom Boonen took a dominating sprint win at the end of the third stage of the Tour of Qatar on Tuesday.

The Belgian showed he has lost none of his sprinter's pedigree as he emerged from the peloton to hold off Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam) and Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank) in a crash-marred bunch gallop into Mesaieed, just south of the Qatar capital of Doha

Boonen was unaffected by the crash in the middle of the peloton after getting a good lead-out by new German team mate Andreas Stauff. Boonen opened up his sprint from 200 metres to go and powered down the left-hand side of the road before swinging across to finish clear of his rivals. Boonen's computer registered a maximum speed of 72.8km/h and he described the sprint as one of the fastest finishes of his career.

"That's really fast! The highest I've ever done was against [Alessandro] Petacchi but that was with a tailwind," he said with a smile, clearly happy to be winning again.

Haussler was disappointed with the sprint after what he called a "crazy finale".

"The stage today was pretty relaxed, not too much wind and no cross winds," said Haussler. "We tried to do something in the final but realized that there was no chance. So we decided to go for the sprint. It was a really crazy finale with a roundabout in the last 500 meters. Riders were trying to go through gaps where it was not possible. There was a guy who crashed in front of me and that opened up the sprint, but Boonen was just faster today. Tomorrow we'll try again and hopefully we will have more wind if not then we will go again for the sprint."

Dutchman Wouter Mol (Vacansoleil) avoided the chaos of the finish, finished 19th in the bunch, in the same time as Boonen and so retained his overall race lead. Geert Steurs (Topsport-Vlaanderen) is second at nine second and Boonen moved up to third at 1:55, thanks to the ten-second stage winner's time bonus.

Taylor Phinney of the Under 23 Trek-Livestrong team was an impressive seventh in the sprint. The 19 year-old beat fellow American Tyler Farrar (Garmin), Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma) and Roger Hammond (Cervelo TestTeam).

Garmin's Kirk Carlsen joined his teammate and former roommate Steven Cozza on the injured list.  Carlsen broke his scaphoid in a crash at the first intermediate sprint as Johnny Weltz confirmed to Cyclingnews.

First win of the season

It was Boonen's first win of the season and his first victory since last October's Circuit Franco-Belge.

A relieved looking Boonen was quickly surrounded by his Quick Step teammates as they celebrated an encouraging start to the season for the Belgian star. It was Boonen's 16th individual stage win at the Qatari race.

In contrast to Boonen's delight, sprint rival Gerald Ciolek (Milram) joined a growing list of riders to have broken their collarbones in Qatar after he was caught up in the late-race pile up. Riders crashed in front of him and he landed heavily and fractured his right collarbone. He is the third rider to fracture his collarbone after Kurt Asle-Arvesen (Team Sky) and Steven Cozza (Garmin) on Monday.

Sprinters take no chances on stage three

With the peloton in no mood for a repeat of stage two's breakaway success, the sprinters' teams gave no quarter during the 136km stage, as they controlled the peloton throughout the day. With only a slight breeze blowing, stage three was a lot more relaxed for the 126 riders left in the race.

Alex Dowsett (Trek-Livestrong), Klaas Lodewijk (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Sebastien Hinault (AG2R) went clear after two kilometres but they were pulled back after 23km.

Gatis Smukulis (AG2R) and Steven Van Vooren (Topsport Vlaanderen) had a go and opened a 2:30 gap but they were swept up 30km from the finish.

As the race entered its final 25 kilometres it was BMC Racing Team who led the wind-assisted charge to the final sprint of the day, where Milram's Roger Kluge leapt out of the bunch to secure the small points total and three bonus seconds on offer.

The German's enthusiasm quickly gave way to Cervélo TestTeam and Garmin-Transitions as they took turns in joining the Vacansoleil team of race leader Wouter Mol at the head of the peloton. With 18 kilometres to go, Quick Step also sent a token representative to the front as their man Tom Boonen patrolled the back half of the bunch.

Despite the gradual rotation of teams around them, Garmin was clearly anxious to see Tyler Farrar open his season account as the front of the peloton remained awash with orange helmets as it entered the final 10 kilometres of the stage.

As the scramble intensified at six kilometres to go, HTC-Columbia, Milram and Saxo Bank emerged, with Omega Pharma-Lotto also contributing to the confusion at the front.

With three kilometres remaining, as the race turned right and began a series of roundabouts, Saxo Bank had managed to assert a level of authority. Stuart O'Grady lead the team through two kilometres to go and compatriot Baden Cooke safely tucked at the back of the train.

Omega Pharma-Lotto and Cervélo disturbed the peace as the race entered its final 1000 metres, trying to move up for the sprint. Moments after the peloton swung through a final roundabout, some 500 metres from the line, a stutter in the middle of the bunch was followed by the sight of bikes and riders bouncing across the road, with a number of Milram's men caught up in the incident. Ciolek came off the worst.

Ahead, Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam) led the charge to the line, with Kenny De Haes (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank) in close attendance. But it was the red, yellow and black of Boonen's national champion jersey which emerged first as he powered past his rivals to take a strong win by a bike-length. Tomke was back.