Tour of Qatar Stage 4: Second successive win for Mark Cavendish as he takes race lead

Mark Cavendish is the new leader of the Tour of Qatar after taking his second sprint victory in two days, with Barry Markus of Vacansoleil-DCM finishing second and Andrea Guardini of Astana coming third on the 160km stage from the Camel Race Track to the Al Khor Corniche.

With a little over a kilometre to go, the peloton, which had reined in the day's break, swept round a big roundabout, leaving it strung out as it headed under the flamme rouge, and as the group reformed a crash in the middle of the pack brought a number of riders down.

With two stages to go, Cavendish's 10 second time bonus for winning today sees him overhaul BMC Racing's Brent Bookwalter, who now lies in second place another two seconds back, with team mate and felow American Taylor Phinney third.

Talking about the final kilometeres of the stage, Cavendish said: "Zdenek Stybar did a perfect job with 5km to go, and then Matteo Trentin put me in perfect position in the last roundabout at the 1.5 kilometer point.

"Niki Terpstra found me with a kilometer to go and moved me into the top 15, and I used the same tactics I did last year when I won on the same stage. The wind came from the right, everyone goes right, so I went left, and was shielded. So, I got the perfect position and acceleration in the sprint to get the win."

Tour of Qatar Stage 4 result  
  
1  CAVENDISH Mark            OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP       3h 30' 05"
2  MARKUS Barry              VACANSOLEIL-DCM            All at same time
3  GUARDINI Andrea           ASTANA PRO TEAM
4  FORTIN Filippo            BARDIANI VALVOLE-CSF INOX
5  KRISTOFF Alexander        KATUSHA TEAM
6  CANTWELL Jonathan         TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF
7  BOUHANNI Nacer            FDJ
8  KRUOPIS Aidis             ORICA GREENEDGE
9  BOASSON HAGEN Edvald      SKY PROCYCLING
10 APPOLLONIO Davide         AG2R LA MONDIALE
11 HAUSSLER Heinrich         IAM CYCLING
12 VAN HUMMEL Kenny          VACANSOLEIL-DCM
13 KLUGE Roger               TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA
14 BLYTHE Adam               BMC RACING TEAM
15 DEGENKOLB John            TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO
16 SOUPE GEOFFREY            FDJ
17 BAGDONAS Gediminas        AG2R LA MONDIALE
18 NISHITANI Taiji           JAPAN
19 PASQUALON Andrea          BARDIANI VALVOLE-CSF INOX
20 DELLE STELLE Christian    BARDIANI VALVOLE-CSF INOX
  
Overall standings after Stage 4  
  
1  CAVENDISH Mark            OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP      10h 20' 01"
2  BOOKWALTER Brent          BMC RACING TEAM                + 00' 02"
3  PHINNEY Taylor            BMC RACING TEAM                + 00' 08"
4  BLYTHE Adam               BMC RACING TEAM                + 00' 09"
5  VAN AVERMAET Greg         BMC RACING TEAM                + 00' 12"
6  SCHÄR Michael             BMC RACING TEAM                + 00' 12"
7  EISEL Bernhard            SKY PROCYCLING                 + 00' 13"
8  HAYMAN Mathew             SKY PROCYCLING                 + 00' 14"
9  BOASSON HAGEN Edvad       SKY PROCYCLING                 + 00' 16"
10 THOMAS Geraint            SKY PROCYCLING                 + 00' 17"