Cavendish sprints to Tour of Qatar stage win

Cavendish finished ahead of race leader Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Aidis Kruopis (GreenEdge) to record his first victory for his new team and first since winning the world road race title last September.

"I’m very happy with that. I’m still not 100-per-cent but we wanted to ride well as a team and if it came down to a sprint then it came down to a sprint. It split up which we weren’t really expecting but the wind picked up and I was looked after by the lads who got me to the front group.

"We didn’t really have to ride once we were in the group. I had Bernie Eisel and Flecha there in the final with me to just keep me in position. I wanted to come off Boonen’s wheel but then [Kruopis] from GreenEDGE came over on the right and boxed me in. I had to swing out and I wanted to wait for the headwind finish so left it late and came past Boonen.

"It’s incredible to win [with the rainbow jersey]. I said I wanted to make the jersey proud. You never really get the season going until you get that first win under your belt. So now it’s there I can hopefully get on a roll now and we can win some things."

A bright sunny day greeted the riders and it only took one kilometre for four men to break away from the peloton. Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Alexandre Lemair (Bridgestone Anchor), Mart Ojavee (Champion System) and Mehdi Sohrabi (Lotto-Belisol) rapidly built a lead to a maximum 5 minutes and 25 seconds at the 66km mark. But from that high point the chase began in earnest.

At the 112 km mark, as the wind blew sideways on the course, the peloton broke up into several groups with most of the strong men breaking away.

Thirty-five riders including race leader Boonen, Cavendish, defending champion Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), the BMC pair of Philippe Gilbert and Adam Blythe (BMC), Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) caught up with the four escapees at the 117km mark.

The gap between the leading group and the chasing pack including the likes of Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) grew from 35 seconds to 55 seconds with 20 kilometres to go.

The race favourites remained together all the way to the final straight by the Al Gharafa Stadium, where the 39-man sprint took take place. Well positioned on the wheel of stage one winner Boonen, Cavendish then flew to his first success in the rainbow jersey.

The overall leader's Golden Jersey remains on the shoulders of Boonen who now has a 6 second lead over Farrar and 8 seconds over Cavendish.

“The guys did a great job in support of Tom,” said Omega Pharma-QuickStep Sports Director Wilfried Peeters. "In the sprint perhaps Tom was a little behind but Steegmans did quite a number to take him back to the first positions.

"In the final also [Nikolas] Maes and [Guillaume] Vankeirsbulck did a good for Tom. Tom has slightly increased his advantage in the overall standings but in the next few days it will still be a battle for the leadership in the general classification. Today the wind wasn’t a factor. If the wind picks up we will have more options.”

The fourth stage will cover 144km from Al Thakira to Madinat Al Shamal in the north of the gas-rich Gulf state.

Stage 3: 146.5km, Dukhan to Al Gharafa Stadium.

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky 3:23:48
2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
3 Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) GreenEdge
4 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Rabobank
5 John Degenkolb (Ger) Project 1t4i
6 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda
7 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Katusha
8 David Boucher (Fra) FDJ-BigMat
9 Robert Wagner (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan
10 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Katusha

General classification:

1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 6:47:49
2 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:06
3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky 0:00:08
4 Johan Vansummeren (Bel) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:12
5 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Garmin-Barracuda
6 Robert Hunter (RSA) Garmin-Barracuda
7 Mikhail Ignatyev (Rus) Katusha 0:00:17
8 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Sky 0:00:18
9 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Katusha
10 Adam Blythe (GBr) BMC 0:00:19