Lotto Belisol's sprinter Andre Greipel won the fifth stage of the Tour Of Qatar.
Four riders in Stijn Devolder of Trek Factory, Daniel Schorn of Net App, Vladimir Isaychev of Katusha and Patrick Gretsch of AG2R, broke early on a fifth 159km stage from Al Zubara Fort to Madinat ash-Shamal.
After fifty kilometres they had a lead of 5.30 before Schorn took the first intermediate sprint and Gretsch the second.
The peloton with race leader Nicky Terpstra close to the front chased them down and the chasers had got to within ninety seconds of the front four but with 31kms remaining, Devolver, Schorn, Isaychev and Gretsch got the hammer down and increased their lead to 2.27 over a peloton which had regrouped, thanks to some tail winds.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep led the peloton ahead of FDJ and Lotto-Belisol as the gap went out to 2.48 with 25kms to go.
The winds dropped a little allowing the peloton to reduce the gap to the leaders to 1.11 for the final sixteen kilometres.
Nine kilometres on and Devolder, Schorn, Isaychev and Gretsch's time on the front was over for the day as they were swept up and the race for the finish line in Madinat ash-Shamal got under way.
Kristoff punctured but was able to get back in as the pace ramped up again with Omega Pharma Quick Step leading with 3kms to go.
The attacks caused some big splits in the peloton as Lotto Belisol led going into the final kilometre.
Lotto Belisol had timed their run to perfection and there was Andre Greipel to win the stage ahead of Kroupis.Bos, Bennati, Pelucchi, Roelandts, Bennet, Boonen, Terpstra and Viviani.
That ninth place from Nicky Terpstra of Omega Pharma Quick Step means that he leads the race going into the final stage with a seventeen second margin over Tom Boonen and twenty seconds over Jurgen Roelandts. Team Sky's Ian Stannard stays in fourth place, thirty seven seconds behind Terpstra.