Tour of Qatar: Mark Cavendish wins stage 3

Mark Cavendish continued his winning start to life at Omega Pharma-QuickStep by claiming victory in the bunch sprint on stage three of the Tour of Qatar in Mesaieed ahead of Barry Markus (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Aidis Kroupis (Orica-GreenEdge). The win elevates him to 4th overall, 8 seconds off the golden jersey of Brent Bookwalter (BMC), who finished safely in the bunch to preserve his overall lead.

The cacophony of rival lead-out trains in the finale made for a less than harmonious sprint finish but Cavendish’s virtuoso flourish 350 metres from the line meant that his melody drowned out all others. Indeed, there was even a degree of improvisation about Cavendish’s recital. With two kilometres to go, a broken spoke saw Guillaume Van Keirsbulck drop out of the Omega Pharma-QuickStep lead-out ensemble, and it was left to Niki Terpstra to put in a longer turn to bring Cavendish to the red kite.

800 metres from home, Cavendish latched onto the rear wheel of Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), who was being led out by Luke Rowe, and he then had the confidence to open his sprint from a distance when he found himself some way back with 350 metres to go. Cavendish’s pitch-perfect acceleration saw him come past Aidis Kruopis and then hold off the fast-finishing Barry Markus (Vacansoleil-DCM) to take the win.

“Kruopis left his sprint late so he took me by surprise when I was coming past him and I had to accelerate again in the last 50 metres just to get by him,” said Cavendish, who paid tribute to the efforts of his new teammates. “I was sheltered and one of the front guys around every corner. We didn’t quite catch the group the other day so it was nice to get the win under the belt today. I’m very happy.”

The circuit-based nature of Tuesday’s stage made for several sharp changes in direction, but the relatively calm conditions meant that the anticipated splits never materialised, and the tailwind in the closing 20 kilometres ensured a bunch finish. While Omega Pharma-QuickStep and BMC had controlled the peloton for much of the day, the presence of so many of the marquee fast men in the finale – including John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling), Edvald Boasson Hagen and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) – meant that there was a myriad of competing sprint trains jostling for position in an often chaotic closing 10 kilometres.

“It was really hectic. I think every team wants to deliver their sprinter but I think there’s this common misconception that you have to have a lead-out now,” Cavendish said. “It’s actually worse if there are more lead-out trains who don’t know what they are doing. It just becomes chaos.”

The race for gold

Winners of the opening two stages, BMC were again prominent in the opening kilometres, with Adam Blythe helping to defend Bookwalter’s golden jersey by pipping Cavendish by millimetres to take the 3-second bonus at the first intermediate sprint after 20km.

Shortly afterwards, the break of the day managed to forge clear, containing Mathew Hayman (Sky), Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling), Chan Jae Jang (Champion System), Julien Berard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Andrea Di Corrado (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox). The septet built up a lead of 3 minutes at one point, but when BMC and Omega Pharma-QuickStep put their shoulders to the wheel in earnest in the final 50km, their advantage duly frittered away.

By day’s end, Bookwalter had done enough to retain his golden jersey, six seconds ahead of teammate Taylor Phinney, with Adam Blythe a further second back in 3rd, although BMC’s hegemony is now seriously threatened by Cavendish. After earning 12 seconds in bonuses, the Manxman lies 4th overall, a mere 8 seconds off the lead.

BMC had an early scare when Phinney was caught up in a crash in the opening kilometres, and while the American finished safely in the main peloton, Bookwalter admitted that it had been an anxious day. “It was pretty complex at the end of the race with groups going and coming back and there was a pretty serious crash with Taylor early on,” Bookwalter said.

“Right now Mark is the race favourite I think. It could all end up in sprints and he’s hands down the world’s best sprinter right now. We have Adam and Taylor who we can plan for in the sprints, but our plan was a little thwarted a bit today with Taylor going down.”

Cavendish himself was guarded when asked to assess his chances of overall victory, insisting that he was in Qatar simply to win stages. Given the time bonuses on offer and his Omega Pharma-QuickStep team’s ability in the echelons, however, the former world champion is well-placed at the midway point.

“If Tom [Boonen] was here, he’d be going for GC. I’m not saying it’s out of the question but we’ll see what happens,” Cavendish said. “It will only come from trying to take every stage as it comes. So we’ll take every stage and try and get a sprint, and then see if we can get it from the time bonuses.”