Mark Cavendish has won the Tour of Qatar for Omega-Pharma Quick Step after finishing first on the final leg, the 116km from Sealine Beach Resort to Doha Corniche, making it four consecutive wins out of the six stages. It looked much like a repeat of yesterday’s action with Cavendish amongst the bunch sprint forming inside the final 10km of action, but having to fight hard in the final 1km to beat Yauheni Hutarovich (Ag2R La Mondiale) by barely half a wheel to finish in a time of 3h 24’ 31”. He went into today’s stage with a 15second advantage over second place Brent Bookwalter and 20 on third placed Taylor Phinney (both BMC Racing) meaning that only a catastrophe could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the Manx Missile, but ultimately he dominated the stage every bit as much as he has dominated the tour.
The final overall standings were
Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) in 15h 55’ 20”
Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) +25″
Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) +26″
