Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff edged out former champion Mark Cavendish in a sprint showdown to take the second stage of the Tour of Qatar yesterday.
In an extremely close sprint, Kristoff’s lunge to the line was just enough to get the better of the Manxman and take the stage honours at the Qatar University after the 134km race.
“We had a great day and I am very happy I could hold Cavendish behind me, but it was a very close sprint. After crossing the line I was not sure about the win, maybe I was ahead by just a few centimetres,” Kristoff said.
It was his fourth stage win in Qatar—he had won three stages here last year.
The two were part of a small group that remained in fray after a crash took out a number of riders around 300m from the finish. They went head to head with the wind on his face in the final metres for the two-man sprint and a photo finish was needed to confirm Kristoff’s win by a tyre’s width.
“It was a little uphill at the finish. It suited me quite well. We tried to enter the final kilometre in a good position, but, of course, other teams had the same plans. In the last straight I stayed on the wheel of Jacopo and it worked well. The whole team did a great job for the lead out but also earlier in the day at the front of the race,” the 28-year-old Norwegian added.
“This kind of hard sprints suit me really well and I knew I had a chance today, but of course, after yesterday's stage I was not sure I would be able to do it. Tomorrow is another day. I am not such a good specialist of time trial, but we will see how close I can be. Also, we have Slava Kuznetsov and he has a chance to do well tomorrow. So, anyway we will try to do our best tomorrow and in other stages,” he said.
Despite finishing second, Cavendish retained the overall leader’s gold jersey in the race going into today’s all-important individual time trial. Kristoff is now second at five seconds as Roy Jans of Wanty-Groupe Gobert finished third.
“That was a really close one. At the end of the day I was happy with how it went, on that finish I can't be too disappointed on losing to Kristoff, he is strong on that type of finish. I am happy to keep the jersey,” Cavendish said.
“We controlled it at the beginning and then it split in the middle and we thought it might come back anyway on the final circuits but we wanted to be at the front to kind of make life a bit easier but we ended up in the second split. It took some energy out of us but as soon as we caught the front group we were back riding again,” the Manxman added.
The Dimension Data rider again had high praise for his team. “The lads were superb again. Coming to the final straight the wind kept changing from head to crosswind all the time so coming to the sprint the other teams were always going to come from behind but the Dimension Data guys kept me at the front really well.
“Edvald did a really, really good leadout. Unfortunately, the wind was coming from the front right so you wanted the barrier side. I had to let Kristoff in so I knew I had to go on his outside which kind of made it harder for me,” the 2011 World Champion explained.
The stage was held as a second test event for this year's UCI World Championships and took in four laps of the 15.3km circuit, before heading away for a finish at Qatar University.
Before that circuit, the peloton headed north, passing the Losail motor racing circuit then turning back to Doha. A break of four riders was quickly able to build a lead of two minutes, though behind them, the peloton had split under the pressure of the ever-present crosswinds.
By the time the first intermediate sprint was reached at 39km, the four escapees had been brought back by a strong group, including Kristoff who won the bonus seconds by winning the sprint.
Cavendish was some 40 seconds down in the second group, but his team brought him back in the leas as the race entered the Worlds circuit.
After exiting the Pearl circuit, the pack remained bunched all the way to the final straight entering the Qatar University boundary.
Belgian champion Van Hecke of Topsport Vlaanderen and Smukulis of Astana managed to build a lead which was never allowed to exceed 40 seconds. Van Hecke won the final intermediate sprint, on what will be the World Championship's finish line, before he and Smukulis were caught, setting up a bunch sprint.
On the final straight, a one kilometre slightly uphill hill drag, Katusha and Dimension Data battled to establish their leadout trains. While the crash took out some of those further back, it could not prevent the leaders from launching their sprint.
Team Dimension Data Sport Director Roger Hammond said: “Today was another very difficult day considering the strong winds. Katusha tried hard to attack but the guys rode really well as a team, keeping the race together in very difficult conditions. In the sprint Mark was very close, retaining his lead which is really good for us.”

Results & Standings
1. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 3:11:26; 2. Mark Cavendish (GBR) Dimension Data; 3. Roy Jans (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert; 4. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team; 5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data; 6. Andrea Francesco Palini (Ita) Skydive Dubai; 7. Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida; 8. André Looij (Ned) Roompot-Oranje Peloton; 9. Tomasz Kiendys (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice; 10. Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Team Katusha
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) Dimension Data 6:39:51; 2. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 0:00:05; 3. Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:00:14; 4. Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:17; 5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 0:00:18; 6. Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Team Katusha; 7. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:20; 8. Arnaud Gerard (Fra) Fortuneo-Vital Concept 0:00:21; 9. Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha; 10. Manuel Quinziato (Ita) BMC Racing Team
POINTS CLASSIFICATION
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) Dimension Data 32 pts; 2. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 27; 3. Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre–Merida 17; 4. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 14; 5. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 12; 6. Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 9; 7. Roy Jans (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 9; 8. Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 7; 9. Andrea Francesco Palini (Ita) Skydive Dubai 5; 10. Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Team Katusha 4
YOUTH CLASSIFICATION
1. Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha 6:40:12; 2. Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Giant-Alpecin; 3. Soufiane Haddi (UAE) Skydive Dubai 0:01:43; 4. Mekseb Debesay (Eri) Dimension Data; 5. Moreno Hofland (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo; 6. Simone Antonini (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert; 7. Xhuliano Kamberaj (UAE) Skydive Dubai; 8. Nils Politt (Ger) Team Katusha; 9. Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team; 10. Lukas Postlberger (Aut) Bora-Argon 18 0:06:54
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION
1. Team Katusha 20:00:36; 2. BMC Racing Team; 3. Bora-Argon 18 0:00:05; 4. Dimension Data 0:01:43; 5. Astana Pro Team 0:03:26; 6. Fortuneo-Vital Concept; 7. Skydive Dubai 0:05:09; 8. Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise; 9. Team Lotto NL-Jumbo; 10. UnitedHealthcare