Greg Van Avermaet began the final stage of the Tour of Qatar just two seconds behind overall leader Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), and the rising winds along the coast on Friday morning temporarily raised the prospect of a BMC raid on the gold jersey.
It was not to be, however. After the race left the start at Sealine Beach Resort and turned past an unsightly oil refinery whose belching chimneys seemed transposed from a L.S. Lowry painting, the bunch was faced by a block headwind all the way to the finishing circuit in Doha.
Sagely, Dimension Data opted to allow a three-man break featuring Jesse Sergent (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Steven Tronet (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Tim Declerq (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) slip clear early on to hoover up the bonuses, and for all his qualities, Van Avermaet was never likely to make an impact in the eventual bunch finish, where Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) pipped Cavendish for the stage honours.
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“There wasn’t a whole lot we could do today with that headwind, and we knew that this finish was perfect for Cavendish or Kristoff,” Van Avermaet said afterwards. “Maybe if we’d caught the early break before the two bonus sprints, I could perhaps have tried to pick up the two seconds on Cavendish.”
Van Avermaet finished safely in the main peloton but slipped to third overall, 8 seconds down on the eventual winner Cavendish, due to the time bonuses accruing from the bunch sprint. “I’m still satisfied with my Tour of Qatar, though. Third on the general classification is a good result,” he said.
The Belgian had come close to a stage win of his own on stage 4 at Madiant Al Shamal, where he was overpowered in the sprint by Kristoff, but he was optimistic that the Tour of Oman’s punchier finales might prove more amenable to his style as a finisseur.
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