Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Cavendish wins in Qatar

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News Cycling Pro Road & Mtb 2012

Published on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 16:37

Written by Editor

Mark Cavendish won his first race for Team Sky and his first in the world champion's jersey when sprinting to victory on the third stage of the Tour of Qatar today.

Cavendish and team-mates Bernhard Eisel and Juan Antonio Flecha had worked their way into a lead group of just over 30 riders when the peloton was split into three by crosswinds with 30 kilometres remaining in the 146.5km stage from Dukhan to Al Gharafa Stadium.

Most of the big-name sprinters were in that front selection but on the slightly uphill finish it turned into a straight-up battle between the world champion and race leader Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

And having been guided into position by Eisel, Cavendish produced his trademark burst of acceleration to land the spoils by just over a bike length from Boonen, with Aidis Kruopis in third, Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) fourth, John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i) fifth and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) sixth.

It was Team Sky's first victory of the new season – though it was followed a couple of hours later by Lars-Petter Nordhaug’s win in Mallorca - and came just days after Cavendish was laid low by illness on the flight over to Qatar. The success also put him third in the overall standings, eight seconds behind Boonen.

Cavendish said afterwards: "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."

Press release