Cavendish wins again in Qatar

Another day, another sprint, another Mark Cavendish victory. The Omega Pharma-QuickStep rider made it two wins in as many days and took possession of the overall lead at the Tour of Qatar as he beat Barry Markus (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Andrea Guardini (Astana) in the bunch sprint at Al Khor Corniche at the end of stage 4. 

For the second day running, Cavendish was left to his own devices in the finishing straight and, just as he did on Tuesday, the Manxman made light of that apparent handicap as he navigated his way to the front inside the final 300 metres. Cavendish then unfurled a crisp sprint finish to take the stage win ahead of the youngsters Markus and Guardini, and he also claimed the ten-second time bonus that now lifts him into the golden jersey ahead of Brent Bookwalter (BMC).

“I'm really happy, I won here last year on the same parcours,” said Cavendish. “It's pretty much the same wind, not enough to break the race, but everyone's a bit nervous.”

Cavendish’s victory owed almost as much to his head as it did to his legs. Winner at Al Khor in both 2012 and 2009, his almost forensic recollection of sprint finales past helped him to maintain his sangfroid when, to the outside observer, he appeared in danger of getting boxed in on the narrow finishing straight.

“I knew from experience at this finish that the wind comes from the right so you want to be on the left. But the road sweeps right and the peloton naturally moves to the right, so I knew the gap would open on the left. In the end, I was able to do what I did last year and surf around the peloton with 300-200 to go and sprint from there.”

Cavendish’s nominal lead-out man on Wednesday was Matteo Trentin, but the Italian lost track of his master on the final roundabout. For the second successive stage, however, Dutch national champion Niki Terpstra was on hand to put in a man-of-the-match stint in support of Cavendish. “I thought I was going to have to freestyle the last 1300 metres but then Niki came up and moved me up fifteen places,” Cavendish said.

It was another Dutchman, 21-year-old Barry Markus, who again pushed Cavendish the closest in the finishing sprint. Cavendish admitted that he had not been familiar with his dauphin before coming to Qatar, although he has doubtless taken note of the name. “I’d never heard of him but he seems alright though,” Cavendish said. “He’s pretty good.”

Third-place Andrea Guardini, meanwhile, was left with regrets after he found himself on the second wheel 400 metres from the finish. Rather than risk a lengthy effort into the wind, Guardini slowed and latched on to Edvald Boasson Hagen’s wheel, but when he started his sprint, Cavendish had already flown the coop.

“Cavendish showed that when he goes, if you’re not on his wheel or at least ready to accelerate at the same time as him, then there’s nothing to be done,” Guardini said afterwards.

One day at a time

Overnight leader Brent Bookwalter knew that he had a precarious hold on his golden jersey coming into the stage and his hopes of fending off Cavendish, who began the day just 8 seconds back, were dealt a blow by the conditions on stage 4. As forecast, the winds of Sunday and Monday have abated as the week has progressed, and a bunch finish already seemed inevitable when the peloton left the Camel Race Track on Wednesday morning.

Even so, an early trio of escapees – Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) – took it upon themselves to thumb their noses at the odds. They went clear after just 13 kilometres, and set about steadily building up a sizeable lead as they traversed the silent and deserted Qatari interior.

Smukulis, Lang and Grivko stretched their lead out to seven minutes at one point, but once Omega Pharma-QuickStep began to organise the chase, their advantage melted away under the Arabian sun and they were duly swallowed up with 9km still to race. By that point, Omega Pharma-QuickStep had plenty of company at the front end of the peloton, as Argos-Shimano, Sky and Astana looked to form lead-out trains on the fast approach to Al Khor.

A crash inside the final kilometre saw Bookwalter held up, and although he was awarded the same time as the main peloton, he cedes his golden jersey to Cavendish. The Manxman leads Bookwalter by 2 seconds, while Taylor Phinney (BMC) is a further 6 seconds back in third. “Fresh legs don't make for safe finishes,” said Phinney. “I would much prefer it to be like the first day when everybody was pretty tired from all the wind and the echelons.”

Wary of the possibility of echelons on Thursday’s penultimate stage to the northern tip of the peninsula at Madinat Al Shamal, Cavendish was circumspect about his chances of winning the race overall. “The approach is the same whether I’m in the jersey or not, I just want to win stages and see after that,” he said.

Indeed, victory on stage 4 was the 93rd of Cavendish’s career, and he has the opportunity to edge ever closer to his century in the coming days. Asked if he could remember all of his wins, Cavendish gave a telling response: “No, but if you told me the race, I could probably remember the last kilometre.”

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