The manx missile Mark Cavendish takes the win in a frantic finish on the third Stage in the Tour of Qatar. The Omega Pharma rider hit the line, hands in the air, huge grin on his face as he claimed his second stage win since joining OPQS, his first in Qatar. Cavendish held off Markus Barry (Vaconsoleil-DCM) and Aidis Kruopis (Orica-Greenedge) who took second and third respectively.
Orica-Greenedge held prime position, as they passed under the flamme rouge with Argos Shimano fighting to set up John Degenkolb. At 850m, Cavendish latched onto the remnants of Sky’s train for Boasson Hagen, and at 350m “had to go”. His sprint was timed to perfection, holding off the late finish from Barry. Although his teammate’s weren’t there to lead him out, one due to a blown spoke, Cavendish only had high praise for the OPQS riders, “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.”
Bookwalter, who finished 26th, managed to retain his golden jersey, six seconds ahead of teammate Taylor Phinney who was caught up in a crash in the opening kilometres which gave BMC a scare. However, the American was able to recover and finished safely in the main peloton, coming in 54th, holding onto both his second place GC, and leader of the Youth competition. In third is Adam Blythe, just one second off Phinney’s time, however Cavendish is a threat to BMC’s hegemony after earning 12 seconds in bonuses, the Manxman lies fourth overall, just eight seconds off the lead.
A 160km stage tomorrow from Camel Race Track to Al Khor Corniche will test the BMC riders as with a repeat performance, Cavendish could take the GC lead. Bookwalter will be looking to his BMC teammates to keep him near the front and in contention, whilst Phinney will have his work cut out to hold onto the Youth jersey, just one second ahead of Blythe.
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