Marcel Kittel claimed the first victory for Project 1t4i. The sprinter of Project 1t4i edged the victory in the second stage of the French stage race Etoile des Besseges before Belgium Kris Boeckmans and stage one winner Nacer Bouhanni.
The second stage was hard due to the severe winter weather that also hit southern of France. Snow and temperatures at the freezing point forced the race organizers to cancel the first part of the route between Nîmes and Saint-Ambroix. The start was taken at Lusson and left almost 59 kilometres untouched of the original 149km.
Marcel Kittel showed some real strength in the sprint and left his opponents no chance in the last straight line and won his first race after finishing second the previous day. The German is also the new leader in the general classification.
Stage 2, Etoile des Besseges Nimes-Saint-Ambroix 59 km:
1. Marcel Kittel (Ger) Project 1t4i
2. Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
3. Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ - Big Mat
4. Daniele Colli (Ita) Team Type 1 - Sanofi
5. Justin Jules (Fra) Veranda Rideau U
6. Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
7. Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda`s
8. Sebastien Chavanel (Fra) Team Europcar
9. Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis Le Crédit en Ligne
10. Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
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Trixi Worrack took the first UCI stage win of 2012 for Specialized-lululemon on Thursday, winning the second stage of Women's Tour of Qatar from a two person break.
Worrack, who also made the break of the day on Wednesday in stage one, was able to make the break again in the famous cross-winds that make the Tour of Qatar what it is.
"I'm really happy with the way the team raced today," said Team Director Jens Zemke. "Yesterday we had three in the break but made some tactical errors but today they made up for it."
The Specialized-lululemon women along with the Green Edge team forced the race into the gutter from the stage start with the winning break escaping from the front group with 15km remaining in the race. Worrack and Judith Arndt went away with Adrie Visser and Kirsten Wild but were able to drop them with 12km to go and arrive at the finish line for a two-up sprint. Worrack won from Arndt and now sits in second place overall behind Arndt with one stage remaining.
"I'm really happy to win a stage here in my first race with Specialized-lululemon," said Worrack. "It's hard and fun racing here and we're really enjoying racing together."
Worrack's team-mate, Chloe Hosking wears the Best Young Rider's jersey and Specialized-lululemon leads the team classification.