Tour of Qatar: Démare wins stage 6

It's not quite the Champs-Élysées and this is certainly not the Tour de France, but Arnaud Démare's second victory on Doha's Corniche certainly augurs well for his 2014 season. The FDJ.fr rider unleashed a devastating sprint to win the final stage of the Tour of Qatar, while Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) finished safely in the pack to secure overall honours.

Indeed, Démare's victory was a classic triumph of the head and the legs. After showing nous in surviving the final bend and then latching on to the Tinkoff-Saxo train, he finished the job in emphatic fashion. With 200 metres to go, Démare let fly a darting sprint that quickly took him two bike lengths clear, and he crossed the line comfortably ahead of Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo), Bernhard Eisel (Sky) and Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

Unlike the sprint finishes earlier in the week, when Omega Pharma-QuickStep and Lotto-Belisol's strength in numbers dictated that everyone else would be scrapping for minor placings, this was a decidedly more democratic finale, with more trains added to the mix. A determined Tinkoff-Saxo train looked to set up Bennati and Belkin were out in force for Théo Bos, and Lotto's lead-out for Greipel failed to materialise.

"There were two or three trains with Lotto, Belkin and Omega," Démare said. "So we had to stay well grouped, we couldn't get exposed to the wind too soon."

The ten laps on the Corniche were animated by escapees Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare), Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing) and Rafai Chtioui (Skydive Dubai), who had broken clear on the short hike up from the start at Sealine Beach.

The quintet crossed the finish line for the first time with a lead of 2:45 over the QuickStep-led bunch, but as the kilometres ticked down towards the finish, so too did their advantage begin to dwindle. Nonetheless, the break put up stout resistance and was not swept up until the final lap on the Corniche, with Bazzana the last man to resign to the inevitable.

 Terpstra and QuickStep dominate

The overall picture, meanwhile, remained unchanged on the final stage, as Niki Terpstra enjoyed an untroubled final day in the gold jersey and safely crossed the line in the main peloton. The Dutchman maintained his lead of 17 seconds over teammate Tom Boonen, while Jürgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol) - one of the week's most impressive all-round performers - took the third step on the podium, a further three seconds back.

"I think since the first Tour of Qatar, QuickStep was good here, so we've got a name to keep up," Terpstra said of his victory.

Of the thirteen editions of the Tour of Qatar since its inception in 2002, seven have been won by riders from Patrick Lefevere's team. Terpstra's name follows those of Tom Boonen (2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012) Wilfried Cretskens (2007) and Mark Cavendish (2013) in the roll of honour.

"I'm happy to have the gold jersey now, but even down to the last lap it was stressful because if you have a small accident you can lose time and the jersey is gone," Terpstra said.

QuickStep's dominance of the race was almost total, as they also won the points classification through Boonen, the best young rider competition with Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and the team classification. Three of the six stages also fell to QuickStep, as did five of the top ten places overall.

The raw statistics only tell half the story, however. Out on the road, the black jerseys of Omega Pharma-QuickStep were a constant presence at the front end of the peloton, as they gleefully split the race into echelons in the crosswinds earlier in the week.

"Of course, in these races with the wind, to attack is the best defence actually," Terpstra said. "If you start to make an echelon, then most of the time you get in there with the majority of your team. That is what we did." As simple and as complicated as that.

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