Cavendish (Sky) won the sprint from the Liquigas-Cannondale pair of Daniel Oss and Peter Sagan at the end of the 160km ride from Camel Race Track to Al Khor.

"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."

Having opted out of the sprint on the opening stage as he recovered from illness, Cavendish has now won both bunch finishes since.

"It’s nice to get two wins. 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."

The peloton took off just after noon at a very fast pace making the best of the tailwind (52.3kms covered during the first hour), but despite the speed five men managed to break away after five kilometres.

Robert Wagner (RadioShack-Nissan), Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas-Cannondale), Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha), Thomas Bertolini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) and Ryota Nishizono (Bridgestone Anchor)

Their lead progressively went from 1 minute and 5 seconds at 13km to 2 minutes and 40 seconds at the first intermediate sprint (37km) won by Kuchynski ahead of Bertolini and Bodnar. The gap reached a maximum 4 minutes and 40 seconds at 97km.

At the second bonus sprint (124.5km) claimed by Wagner ahead of Kuchynski and Bodnar, the gap had dropped down to 1 minute and 45 seconds.

Nishizono, Bertolini and Wagner were the first to be caught by the chasers at 129km, while Bodnar and Kuchynski resisted the inevitable and continued to enjoy an advantage of 1 minute and 22 seconds with 20kms to go.

The pair fell to the peloton 10 kilometres from the line and another bunch sprint beckoned on the Al Khor corniche.

As on stage three, it was Mark Cavendish who powered to victory beating Oss and Sagan to the line.

Boonen keeps his overall leader's Golden Jersey with a 31 seconds lead over Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) and 34 seconds over Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky). The Belgian also keeps the points' classification lead while Navardauskas remains the best young rider.

The final stage is another flat fast and windy affair covering 120km from the Sealine Beach Resort to Doha.

Stage 5: 160km, Camel Race Track to Al Khor Corniche.

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky 3:30:40
2 Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
3 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
4 John Degenkolb (Ger) Project 1t4i
5 Rudiger Selig (Ger) Katusha
6 Allan Davis (Aus) GreenEDGE
7 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ-BigMat
8 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Farnese Vini-Selle Italia
9 Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha
10 Gregory Henderson (NZl) Lotto Belisol

General classification:

1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 13:21:30
2 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:31
3 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Sky 0:00:34
4 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:00:36
5 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Sky 0:00:45
6 Tom Veelers (Ned) Project 1t4i 0:01:00
7 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky 0:01:05
8 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 0:01:06
9 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Garmin-Barracuda 0:01:09
10 Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) GreenEDGE 0:01:10