World champion separated his from team but despatches his rivals with ease
Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) reaffirmed his claim to be the fastest man on two wheels, as he sprinted to a second victory in the 2012 Tour of Qatar in the fifth stage. The World champion, separated from his team in the closing kilometre, opened up his sprint from a long way out; hugging the kerb, as the finishing straight curved to the left, the Manxman swept past the Liquigas-Cannondale pair of Daniel Oss and Peter Sagan to take what looked like an easy victory.
The sprint, at the end of the 160km Camel Race Track and Al Khor Corniche, came after the peloton had finally closed down the two-man breakaway of Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha) inside the final 10km. In the absence of the strong crosswinds, which had played a big part in the race in previous stages, the peloton finished all together.
Double stage winner Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) still leads the race overall, 31 seconds ahead of American sprinter Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda); ten seconds bonus on the line for Cavendish lifts the World champion into seventh place overall, but he still trails Boonen by 1’05”.
“The guys took it in turns to come up and keep me sheltered up at the front,” explained Cavendish at the finish. “I always had one of them with me at every point in those last kilometres and that was incredible.
“The wind was a real factor at the end and was changing direction a lot so you couldn’t really do a big lead-out train. It was a scrap and everyone was pretty fresh. With the tailwind I could go from around 250-300 metres out and I just carried it to the line.”
A breakaway goes long as the peloton allows it
With the wind playing a far smaller part in the stage, despite the stage’s zigzag route across the middle of the peninsular, a five-man group escaped after just 5km. In the move were Bodnar and Kuchynski, along with Thomas Bertolini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia), Robert Wagner (RadioShack Nissan) and Ryota Nishizono (Bridgestone-Anchor; Kuchynski was just 2’19” behind Boonen in the overall classification, but the Belgian’s team was happy allow the break to get a maximum of 4’40” clear after 97km, confident that it could be pulled back later on.
Boonen’s team steadily ate into the breakaway’s lead though, and with little over 35km to go it was down to 1’45”; Bertolini, Wagner and Nishizono sat up and allowed themselves to be pulled back but, with sprinters in the peloton whose lead out trains would not have to work while they were up the road, Bodnar and Kuchynski stubbornly persisted.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step pulled the two of them back to within less than a minute as the race entered the final 25km, but eased off to dare the teams of the other sprinters to do some work. Kuchynski was still a potential threat to Boonen’s overall lead if they were allowed too much time, but the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team was not going to let this happen.
With too many sprinters yet to take anything from the race it wasn’t long before the Belgian team was joined at the front by Team Sky – who had one stage through World champion Mark Cavendish, but wanted another – and Rabobank.
The gap was allowed to rise to almost a minute and a half, but was back down below a minute with 13km to go; it began to fall rapidly as BMC Racing brought numbers forward.
As the peloton began to pass through the roundabouts on the approach to Al Khor, Team Sky, FDJ-BigMat and Liquigas-Cannondale brought numbers forward to help Omega Pharma-Quick Step in the chase. Approaching the final 10km, with their lead down to below 25 seconds, Bodnar and Kuchynski began to talk about whether or not to sit up.
As they passed the 10km banner the two riders shook hands, and the peloton swept past a few hundred metres later.
There was a sudden fright near the front of the peloton, as Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) touched a wheel in front of him and fell off. Despite the incident happening so far forward, and so close to the middle of the road, the speed was relatively low and the Latvian was the only rider to come down.
All over for the fugitives and the sprint is on
As the peloton entered the outskirts of town the RadioShack-Nissan team moved to the front, and Swiss champion Fabian Cancellara began to lift the pace. The Luxembourg team, along with Liquigas-Cannondale, briefly strung out the peloton, but eased off again with 5km to go and Omega Pharma-Quick Step came through – along with Team Sky – once more.
With 4km to go disaster struck Robbie McEwen (GreenEDGE), as the veteren Australian became the latest victims of the many punctures inflicted by the atar roads.
Into the final 3km Rabobank came forward, battling with Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, and the pace lifted considerably. A kilometre later though, Garmin-Barracuda came forward in force with New Zealander Jack Bauer leading Brazilian champion Murilo Fischer.
Past the final kilometre banner Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) surged forward, but the Lotto-Belisol team was amassed behind the Spaniard and ready to take control.
Sky regained the front of the peloton, through Bernhard Eisel and Davide Appollonio, but Cavendish was not with them as he appeared boxed in a dozen riders back.
Suddenly though, as Oss and Sagan led the peloton towards the line, Cavendish opened up his sprint and, hugging the left side of the road as the finishing straight curve in the last few hundred metres, he flew past the others to take the line a length clear of Oss.
“It’s nice to get two wins,” said the World champion. “I won two stages here in 2009 and that was one of my most successful seasons so it’s good to get off to a great start with Team Sky and in the World champion’s jersey.”
Result stage 5
1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Sky
2. Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
3. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
4. John Degenkolb (Ger) Project 1t4i
5. Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Katusha Team
6. Allan Davis (Aus) GreenEDGE
7. Arnaud Demaré (Fra) FDJ-BigMat
8. Andrea Guardini (Ita) Farnese Vini-Selle Italia
9. Denis Galimzjanov (Rus) Katusha Team
10. Greg Henderson (Aus) Lotto-Belisol
Standings after stage 5
1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
2. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda @ 31s
3. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Team Sky @ 34s
4. Gert Steegmans (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step @ 36s
5. Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team Sky @ 45s
6. Tom Veelers (Ned) Project 1t4i @ 50s
7. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Sky @ 1’05”
8. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan @ 1’06”
9. Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Garmin-Barracuda @ 1’09”
10. Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) GreenEDGE @ 1’10”