World Champion Mark Cavendish wins in Qatar

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Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) secured his first win for his new team and his as world champion, taking stage 3 of the Tour of Qatar with a trademark sprint finish. Race leader Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma Quick Step) finished in second with Aidis Kruopis (GreenEdge) in third.

Boonen increased his lead over American Tyler Farrar in the overall standings, with Cavendish now just two seconds further back in third, and he also retains the silver jersey as overall points leader.

"I'm very happy. I'm still not 100 per cent but I wanted to ride and we wanted to ride as a team," Cavendish said at the finish.

"We didn't expect it to split up but I was looked after by the lads and we didn't need to ride on the front. I had Eisel and Flecha with me in the final section but I was boxed in and had to swing out. I wanted to leave it as late as possible because of the headwind at the finish so I waited and waited. It's incredible to win with this jersey. I said that I wanted to do the jersey proud and you never really feel the season has started until you get a win. Now I feel I can go on a roll."

The cat-and-mouse stage, which finished at Doha's Al Gharafa stadium, came to life in the last 30 kilometres when Garmin-Barracuda split up the field in the crosswinds. Their numerical advantage and strength saw Liquigas's Peter Sagan distanced but a number of other teams, including Omega and Rabobank were well-represented. 10km later the 35-strong leading pack had opened up a decisive gap of 55 seconds between them and the rest of the peloton.

Sky, with Cavendish, Eisel and Flecha, were able to conserve energies as they focussed on keeping the world champion safe from the wind.

In the final kilometre it looked as though Cavendish had been boxed in, but he jumped onto Boonen's wheel at the vital time and had enough power left to come through and take the win. It had looked for a few seconds as if Boonen had done enough for another victory but he was collared by Cavendish in the shadow of the winning line. With a win in stage one and a second place in the team trial yesterday, the Belgian is in a good position at the halfway point of the race to secure his fourth win in the event. He was pleased with his own performance and that of his team , even if he did admit that he possibly went for home a fraction too soon.

"I think the guy that wins the Tour of Qatar this year will be the guy who has the most top three finishes," Boonen said. "So I am at a good average now after the first half of the race but there are a lot of guys close behind who are looking to pull the golden jersey off my shoulders.

"As a team we can be very happy with the result we got today. We went a little bit too early on the lead but that's sprinting and every sprint is a lesson. I was not in the first group at the beginning and had a bridge to cross along with Fabian [Cancellara]. The wind was very strange today - every time you thought that it had died down it suddenly picked up again. I think the weather may be changing a bit. There seemed to be a little more dust in the air so we will see how that works for the rest of the week."

Quick Step's sporting director Wilfired Peeters said that it was no disgrace to be beaten by Cavendish and claimed that he was hopeful Boonen could stay at the top of the GC.

"We made a good start on Sunday with the win for Tom, yesterday we were second and today we were second again," he said. "We have a good option for the golden jersey now. We controlled the race today together with Garmin and were just beaten by Cavendish, who is getting stronger. He is riding without problems now and he is hard to beat when he is like that. We are looking for the win this week and if the wind picks up we will have more options."

Tyler Farrar's sixth place finish kept him in touch with Boonen and Cavndish in the GC and helped Garmin-Barracuda to stay at the top of the overall team standings. Germany's Rudi Selig is now a second clear in the young riders GC.