Sam Bennett wins final stage of Tour of Qatar

Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) claimed the finest win of his young career while Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) sealed overall victory as the Tour of Qatar drew a close with a breathless finale on Doha’s Corniche on Friday afternoon.

Terpstra began the day with a lead of 6 seconds over Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff-Saxo) and, more pressingly, just 11 seconds over Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), already the winner of three sprint stages.

When Kristoff picked up two bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint, it made for a particularly nervous finale for Terpstra as the Norwegian could divest him of the gold jersey with the ten-second time bonus for stage victory. Surprisingly, however, Kristoff was nowhere to be seen in a keenly-contested bunch finish, and for the second successive year the overall spoils fell to Terpstra.

The sprint finish, as is so often the case on Doha’s exposed Corniche, was a difficult one to judge but Bennett showed admirable calm to gauge his effort to perfection on the wide, curving finishing straight.

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) opted to launch his sprint from distance, while the Irishman stayed locked onto Andrea Guardini’s wheel behind. When Guardini opened his own effort inside the final 200 metres, Bennett scorched past him to claim his first victory of the season and the biggest since he stepped up to Pro Continental level last year.

Guardini, who has been so consistent in the early part of this season, had to settle for third place ahead of a fast-finishing Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis). The Frenchman showed an impressive turn of speed in the closing metres but he was forced to come from too far back and was never a true factor in the shake-up for the stage win. Sagan faded to fourth place, just ahead of MTN-Qhubeka’s Youcef Reguigui.

Kristoff, the danger man as far as Etixx-QuickStep were concerned, crossed the line in 19th place without making any impression in the bunch finish. Tellingly, Terpstra came home just behind him in 25th place. The Dutchman’s gold jersey was visible near the front on the closing laps of the Corniche circuit as he looked to avoid any late splits, and he did enough to secure another overall win and continue his QuickStep team’s domination of this race.

Indeed, in thirteen editions of the race since the inaugural Tour of Qatar in 2002, Patrick Lefevere’s men have now triumphed on seven occasions through Tom Boonen (2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012), Terpstra (2014 and 2015), Wilfried Cretskens (2007) and Mark Cavendish (2013).

Keeping out Kristoff

Terpstra’s victory in Tuesday’s time trial had set him on course to seal the overall win but in claiming the two stages since, Kristoff was edging ever closer to his gold jersey. Consequently, Etixx-QuickStep’s strategy on Friday’s final stage was built around denying the Norwegian any further bonus seconds.

A typical tactic in such situations is to allow a break go clear and hoover up the bonuses at the two intermediate sprints, and QuickStep were happy to allow Preben van Hecke, Marcus Burghardt, Nicola Boem and Stefano Pirazzi forge clear shortly after the start at Sealine Beach Resort and build a two-minute lead over the peloton.

Katusha had other ideas, however, and along with Tinkoff-Saxo – who had Bodnar in second place, just 6 seconds down on Terpstra – they set about bringing back the escapees. By the finishing circuit on Doha’s picturesque Corniche, the break had been pegged back and so Etixx-QuickStep had to employ a different approach to denying Kristoff the time bonuses.

At the first sprint after 73.5 kilometres, the team deployed Tom Boonen to go head to head with Kristoff and the Belgian duly took the honours. Kristoff’s second place was worth two seconds, however, and he was now just 9 seconds – or one stage winner’s time bonus – away from overall victory.

Rather than facilitate Kristoff’s task, Etixx-QuickStep then sent Iljo Keisse up the road with Gijs van Hoecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), and the duo were still out in front by the second intermediate sprint after 90.5 kilometres, while Topsport’s Tim Declerq claimed the one-second bonus for third.

Keisse sat up shortly afterwards as Katusha brought the peloton back together for the inevitable bunch sprint, but the Russian team faded from the first positions on the closing lap of the 5.6km finishing circuit as Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) put in a powerful cameo on the front.

Astana and IAM Cycling were also very active in the finale, while the gold jersey of Terpstra was vigilant, though in the final kilometre, it was Sagan’s Tinkoff-Saxo team who took up the reins. Sagan was unable to finish off their work, however, and instead it was the hugely impressive Bennett – who picked his way through a stretched peloton to latch onto the perfect wheel – who unleashed a vicious sprint to take the win.

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