Haussler wins stage two, piles pressure on Boonen

By N.D. Prashant/Doha

BATTLING THE ROUGH: A pack of cyclists compete in the 135.5 km second stage run from Camel Race Track to Doha Golf Club during the 2011 Tour of Qatar cycling race. (Inset) Heinrich Haussler (L) of Australia celebrates on the finish line. (AFP

Australian Heinrich Haussler of Team Garmin-Cervelo sprinted to victory in the second stage of the Tour of Qatar here yesterday to pile on the pressure on overall leader Tom Boonen of Quick Step.
Haussler was the fastest rider on the day as he outsprinted Daniele Bennati of Team Leopard-Trek and third placed Denis Galimzyanov of Katusha Team to the tape.
Boonen, who had a four-second lead going into the second stage, finished sixth and was seven seconds off winner Haussler. The Belgian ace continues to don the golden jersey but has a mere one-second lead over Haussler going into the third stage. Third on the overall, Mark Renshaw, of HTC-Highroad (THR), was just four seconds adrift.
There is very little to choose between the top three and the contest is now precariously poised. Any slip up from here on can dent Boonen’s chances of scripting a fourth title here in Doha.
"Definitely feels nice to win a stage here. I had finished on the second spot couple of times. We managed to bridge the gap now, thanks to the hard work put in by the entire team.
"This stage win wasn’t really expected. It is always good to start the season with a good result. Yesterday, I was not feeling really super… super. I didn’t expect to win here today either but the team worked for me and they wanted to go for it,” said a pumped up Haussler after the race.
The Australian was confident of continuing his fine show in the remaining stages and on winning the title. "Yes, definitely to win the golden jersey is my goal. We still have lot of work to do and if we can manage one or two stage wins the title can be a reality. The team is on a high at the moment,” said Haussler.
Boonen, who had a record 18 stages to his name here in Qatar, looked clearly disappointed with his performance. "We had too much work to do to reach for the sprint. I never was in the lead today so I never had the possibility to win today.
"With 200 metres to go, my sprint was already finished. I needed a lot of work to get in front in the last one and half kilometres and that sealed my chances,” said the 30-yr-old who is coming out of an injury layoff.
Boonen is of the view that nothing is lost and the contest is still wide open. "The thing is, we both (Haussler) have the same objective; to win the title. We both know we need to control the race and both have strong teams. It’s a challenge for both the teams. One who wins one or two stages next will win the title. Let the best guy win.”
Haussler, for his effort, won the silver jersey for leading the points tally, while Boonen’s Quick Step teammate Nikolas Maes continued to retain the blue jersey for the best young rider.
The wind remained calmer all through the 135.5km-course from Camel Race Track to the Doha Golf Club. The first intermediate sprint after 39km was claimed by Manuel Quinziato of BMC Racing Team ahead of Team HTC-Highroad’s Jan Ghyselinck and Niko Eeckhout of Team AN Post Sean-Kelly while the pack remained 5’30 adrift.
The second bonus sprint after 97.5km was won by Ghyselinck ahead of Quinziato and Giovanni Visconti of Team Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli and by now, the gap had dropped to 3’35.
With 25 kilometres to go, the main pack had a 2’05 lead which dropped down to a minute, 5 kilometres later. The remaining escapees were eventually caught at kilometre 126. In the bunched sprint at Doha Golf Club, Haussler finally captured his first stage win. Today’s 150.5km third stage from Al Walka to Mesaieed will start at 12.23pm and finish at Mesaieed by 3.45pm. Both the intermediate bonus sprints will be held at Al-Wukair — first after 98.5kms and the second after 117.5kms.