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Cavendish prevails in first stage of Tour of Qatar

Mark Cavendish powered to his first win of the season, his first triumph with new squad Dimension Data and his ninth Tour of Qatar stage victory in Monday's opener.

February 8, 2016
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Mark Cavendish powered to his first win of the season, his first triumph with new squad Dimension Data and his ninth Tour of Qatar stage victory in Monday’s opener. Cavendish stayed ahead of Sacha Modolo (Italy/Lampre) out of a reduced bunch to take the flowers.

The first stage of the 15th Tour of Qatar came three days after the completion of the Ladies Tour of Qatar. German Trixi Worrack (Canyon-SRAM) took the win without a stage victory–those were spread evenly between the Dutch (Kirstin Wild and Ellen van Dijk) and the Australians (Katrin Garfoot and Chloe Hosking). Canadian Annie Ewart (UnitedHealthcare) at 37th and +4:50 was fifth in the young rider category, while top Canadian was Leah Kirchmann, 29th in her first outing for Liv-Plantur.

Cavendish had taken top GC honours at the Tour of Qatar in 2013 when he was with Etixx-QuickStep. In fact, eight of the last 10 ToQ champions have been from some incarnation of the Belgium squad. So where was the team this year? It turned out that the organizers had banned the team for poor behaviour and–in some delicious irony–slowness.

With no Etixx to slow them down–and no Trek-Segafredo, Tinkoff, Sky, Orica-GreenEdge or Movistar either–the riders departed Dukhan with 176-km ahead of them before Al Khor. And though the wind propelled them to a ludicrous 52-km/h in the first hour, it shattered the peloton, with 21-riders ripping off the front.

Most of the favourites were there: Cavendish with Dimension riders, Belgian Greg van Avermaet with BMC reinforcement, Alexander Kristoff (Norway) with Katusha helpers and Modolo flying the Lampre flag. Kristoff nipped Cavendish at the first intermediate sprint, but the Manxman took the second.

When the race changed direction, BMC and Katusha formed echelons to put the others in the gutter and thin out the numbers.

In the finish, Kristoff was delivered to the optimal spot to pounce but didn’t have the legs to seize the victory. Cavendish came around him and staved off the Italian threat.

It seems likely that the all-around winner will come from the 16 first riders on the day. The next group came in 1:43 later and Canadian Hugo Houle finished in a bunch 11:53 in arrears. Cavendish leads Modolo on GC by 8-seconds.

There’s more flat roads and wind Tuesday with the 135-km second stage around Doha, an early look at October’s World Championships course.

2016 Tour of Qatar Stage 1
1) Mark Cavendish (Great Britain/Etixx-QuickStep) 3:28:46
2) Sacha Modolo (Italy/Lampre) s.t.
3) Andrea Guardini (Italy/Astana) s.t.
106) Hugo Houle (Canada/AG2R) +11:53