Chicchi sprints to another stage win in Qatar

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Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) won the final stage of the Tour of Qatar on Friday, with the overall title going to surprise winner Wouter Mol (Vacansoliel). Chicchi took the final mass sprint ahead of Tyler Farar(Garmin-Transitions) and Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) after seven high-speed laps of a finishing circuit on the spectacular Doha Corniche.

Mol finished safely in the bunch to take the overall classification. He broke away with Belgium's Geert Steurs (Topsport Vlaanderen), gaining almost two minutes and the big names in the race were unable to take back the time during the rest of the race. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won two stages but finished third overall at 1:45.

"I'm really happy now. It was a long nervous day but the team did a great job so that I can stand on the winner's podium. We did it as a team, that's important to say," Mol said after pulling on the final winner's gold jersey.

"We controlled the race again today and it was good there were four riders up front. I was near the front of the bunch in the sprint and so it was no problem."

"I'm getting better as a rider. I've never done this kind of thing before, I hope I can do it some more times in the future."

The long way to victory

Chicchi took his second stage win by blasting past his rivals on the left side of the road as the other sprinters switched to the right. It was the long way around but he was protected from the side wind blowing off the sea and had the speed to hit the line first. "It was a bit more difficult to win today because the last lap was done at a crazy speed," he told Cyclingnews.

"It's usually harder for me to win high-speed sprints like this but Bennati sacrificed his chances to help me and I can only thank him."

"Team Sky was on the front down the back straight doing 60kpm, but after the last roundabout at the bottom of the circuit, we got back to near the front. I stayed on the left because it was sheltered from the wind. I took a risk by doing that but everyone else went to the right to take the shortest line. I took the long way round and got it. I hit 74kpm, that's how fast the sprint was."

Four-rider breakaway

The closing stage was a short one, only 123.5km, which ended with seven laps of a 6km circuit in downtown Doha. Much of the race was dominated by a four-rider escape group. Patrick Gretsch (HTC-Columbia), Martin Kohler (BMC), Niki Terpstra (Milram) and Australian Ben King (Trek-Livestrong) got away after only 2.5km into the stage. However their lead was never more than five minutes and the bunch chased them down as the circuits counted down.

The quartet entered the final lap with only a 17 second lead, as the sprinters' teams were determined to take another one. With four km to go, the escape was over, with Sky leading the way past the four at breakneck speed. Garmin-Transitions and Quick Step took over after the last roundabout but both teams admitted they went a little bit early, leaving their sprinters Tyler Farrar and Tom Boonen on the front too early.

As the bunch hesitated and switched across the road, Chicchi found another gear to slide through a small gap and accelerate ahead to take the win. He threw his arms up to celebrate, while everybody else's heads dropped in defeat. Wouter Mol stopped and hugged his soigneur and then directuer sportif. It is the biggest win of the lanky Dutchman's career but he showed that fortune favoured the brave at this year's Tour of Qatar.

Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo Test Team) won the silver points jersey, Roger Kluge (Milram) won the blue best young rider and the Cervelo Test Team took home the team prize. Most the 128 riders in the race now have a day off before travelling to Muscat in Oman for the start of the six-day Tour of Oman. The racing begins on Sunday with a 61km circuit race.

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