Mark Renshaw (HTC-Columbia) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar between West Bay Lagoon and Al Kharaitiyat at the head of a very select peloton. The Australian, whio is more used to delivering Mark Cavendish to victory, beat Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step) into second and third at the end of the 153.5km stage.
Once again the crosswinds played an enormous part in the race, decimating the peloton and breaking it into several pieces.
In the second half of the stage a group of around 25 riders detached itself from the front of the main peloton. It contained Gabriel Rasch (Garmin-Cervélo) and Gert Steegmans (Quick Step), but crucially not race leader Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervélo) and his gold jersey looked to be under threat.
With a number of teams missing the front group though it was no allowed to get more than 35 seconds ahead and was reabsorbed by the peloton with 17.5km to go.
With 12.5km to go Maarten Tjallingii put in an attack, and as he sat in 25th place, 6’10” behind race leader Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervélo) he was adjudged to be of no danger overall; there was no immediate reaction from the peloton and so his lead had risen to 17 seconds at 10km to go and continuing to grow.
Tjallingii was allowed to dangle off the front for a while until Team Sky began to push the pace and he was caught with just under 6km to go. Sky positioned its paceline on the left side of the road, preventing an echelon from forming; tis coupled with the higher pace set began to force further splits in the already small peloton.
As the front group peeled off the four-lane highway with under 4km to go there were fewer than 20 riders left.
With under 3km to go Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) jumped off the front, and was joined by Lars Boom (Rabobank), but the pair was closed down quickly by Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Highroad).
Inside the final kilometre Leopard Trek began to wind up the pace for Bennati. Boonen was the first to jump though, but Renshaw was alongside him and managed to match the Belgian all the way and took the victory. Bennati, who was on Renshaw’s wheel, came around to take second ahead of Boonen.
Haussler could only manage fourth and so missed out on the bonus seconds; 10 seconds for Renshaw mean that he takes the leader’s gold jersey from his Australian compatriot.
Result stage 4
1. Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad
2. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek
3. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
4. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo
5. Denis Galilzyanov (Rus) Katusha
6. Roger Kluge (Ger) Skil-Shimano
7. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Team Sky
8. Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Astana
9. Roger Hammond (GBr) Garmin-Cervélo
10. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team
Standings after stage 4
1. Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad
2. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo @ 6s
3. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek @ 15s
4. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Team Sky @ 24s
5. Roger Hammond (GBr) Garmin-Cervélo @ 36s