Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won the opening road stage of this year’s Tour of Qatar between Dukhan and the Al Khor Corniche, giving the former Belgian and World champion his 18th individual victory in the race. Boonen outsprinted Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) and Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek) as the peloton split into a number of pieces on the windy 145km stage.
“This victory is a reward for all the hard work I’ve put in to get back to this level after my knee problems,” said a happy Boonen on Sporza.
“It’s taken me a long time to get back to this level,” he said. “That I’ve got back into shape was arguably the toughest thing I’ve done in my career.
“In the early stages the race was crazy,” explained Boonen, “my speedo even read 75kph! [Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) later reported 81.5kph via Twitter – Ed] After 5km the peloton was already split into five pieces; we had to fight hard to stop the second group from rejoining.”
Almost as soon as the stage had begun the wind that so characterises this race made its presence felt, causing the peloton to shatter into several pieces. A large group of riders, which included a number of strong classics specialists broke away from the front and was never seen again.
Crucially race leader Lars Boom (Rabobank), reportedly suffering from stomach problems, made the split but was forced to drop back to the second group and faced the prospect of a near-impossible struggle to hold on to the gold jersey.
With the front group working hard, with most of the strongest teams represented, the chase from the peloton was not as strong as it might have been and the lead continued to open up. Now consisting of 18 riders, the leaders had more than 5 minutes as a massive tailwind carried them towards the finish.
Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) was the best placed rider in the group at the start of the day, having finished second on yesterday’s prologue, just 4 seconds behind Boom. Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) finished just 1 second behind Cancellara and was also present in the group, but intermediate sprints along the course changed all this.
With first place at the first sprint and second at the second, Renshaw pulled himself level with Cancellara on time; it was actually Gert Steegmans who was race leader on the road following his victory at the second sprint though.
Steegmans was undoubtedly there to work for his captain, Boonen, though, and as the three-time Paris-Roubaix winner opened up his sprint in the final few hundred metres he opened up a metre’s gap over the others. Boonen finished well clear of Haussler and Renshaw to take his first win since last year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, almost a year ago.
The next group, made up of just 23 riders, including Boom, finished 5’01” later.
With 10 seconds bonus for the victory Tornado Tom takes the gold jersey that he has taken home with him on three previous occasions.
Result stage 1
1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
2. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo
3. Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad
4. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek
5. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
6. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Team Sky
7. Dominique Rollin (Can) FDJ
8. Roger Hammond (GBr) Garmin-Cervélo
9. Andreas Klier (Ger) Garmin-Cervélo
10. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Leopard Trek
Standings after stage 1
1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
2. Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad @ 4s
3. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Leopard Trek @ 8s
4. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Team Sky @ 9s
5. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo @ 11s