Boonen too good for Veelers and Cancellara in Qatar thriller

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Belgium’s Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) tightened his grip on the 2012 Tour of Qatar by winning stage four of the race in exciting fashion from Tom Veelers (Project 1t4i) and Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan). On a day of drama featuring high winds and several punctures, Boonen added stage four to his opening stage win and second placed finishes in the team trial and stage three.

After a scorching first hour, when the field covered 52kms, Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) and Miyataka Shimizu (Bridgestone Anchor) broke free, opening up a gap of seven minutes on the chasing pack. The two riders then hurtled through the first intermediate sprint before being caught by the rest of the peloton at the 112km mark.

The field then headed towards the first of their two passes of the finishing area and as they did so a group of 26 riders dropped the rest of the field, with Garmin-Barracuda and Omega Pharma-QuickStep riders once again taking the stage by the scruff of the neck as they had tried to do in stage one and stage two.

Boonen secured the second intermediate sprint from Garmin’s Tyler Farrar, with the two riders almost bumping as they reached the end. By now they had opened up a 20 second lead ahead of a group that included yesterday’s stage three winner Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC). It was a gap that ultimately could not be bridged, and with 10km to go the leading pack was over a minute ahead.

The last 10km were amongst the most dramatic in the history of the race, with Cancellara making the first move for home. He was followed by Boonen, Adam Blythe (BMC), Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) and Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

Lady luck then abandoned Blythe as he suffered a puncture with just over 3km to go before Boonen swept to the front in the finale to take the win ahead of Veelers, who closed fast in the last kilometre, and Cancellara. It was the 20th career stage win at the Tour of Qatar for Boonen, who has really made this race his own in the last few years.

“The wind, again, was a little bit different to what we are used to,” a delighted Boonen said. “It was mainly head and tail winds but there were a few sections with a cross wind and that’s what split the pack. We were the team, together with Garmin, who was really pushing to stay in front and today we got rewarded for our hard work. I think that after today we are in a much more comfortable position to secure the overall victory and it has been a crucial day.”

Boonen added that the stage had been the most exciting yet of the race, with the tougher conditions bringing some of the bigger names to the forefront as he had predicted.

“The harder the race, the bigger the names in front,” he said. “After a stage like this you don’t need to imagine anything – you see the big names coming to the front automatically. Stages like this don’t lie.

“I can’t believe that I am already up to 20 stage wins here. It’s my ninth time and I know the roads really well. They hold no secrets for me.”

Team Sky suffered a day of mixed fortunes, after the high of yesterday’s stage three success for Cavendish. The British team claimed three of the top ten spots thanks to Flecha (4th), Bernie Eisel (8th) and Ian Stannard (10th), but were left frustrated by their failure to help Cavendish stay in touch with the leading pack.

“Three riders in the top ten is good, but not enough,” Eisel told Cyclingnews. “We had one card to play, and that was Cav. We did a good race but I have to be honest – we could have worked better as a team and given each other more shelter in the conditions.

“Fabian [Cancellara] rode off with three guys and then everyone stayed off at the same distance for the last 4km. If we had been better organised it would have come down to a sprint of eight or nine riders and I wouldn’t have lost time. I’m not saying I would have won but I would have been much closer. It’s frustrating.

“The wind was stronger than yesterday but not as bad as last year. But it’s not about the wind, it’s about how fast you go. The wind wasn’t the trickiest thing today. Worse was the narrow roads, the gravel and the cats eyes. We saw so many punctures on the last lap. Welcome to Qatar…”

Omega Pharma-QuickStep is the new leader in the general team classification thanks to Boonen’s heroics, while the battle for the best young rider is developing into a duel between Blythe and Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda). The Lithuanian capitalised on Blythe's misfortune to finish two places ahead of him in 11th place and regain the classification lead.