Omega Pharma Quck Step's Mark Cavendish won his second succesive stage of the Tour Of Qatar when he sprinted to victory in today's fourth stage.
Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) got away after thirteen kilometres of the 160km stage from Camel Race Track - Al Khor Corniche.
Their lead went out to seven minutes but they were hauled back and with eight kilometres to go, the trio sat up and shook hands before being swamped by the peloton.
This set up a bunch sprint and there was a crash near the finish line which saw a broken collar bone for Argos Shimano rider Koen De Kort and held up race leader Brent Bookwalter.
Cavendish made his move and took the win in a time of 3.30.05 ahead of Vacansoleil's Barry Markus and Astana's Andrea Guardini. Adam Blythe was 14th.
With the ten seconds bonus on offer for the winner, Cavendish became the new race leader.
A delighted Cavendish told cyclingnews.com; “I'm really happy, I won here last year on the same parcours. “It's pretty much the same wind, not enough to break the race, but everyone's a bit nervous.
“I knew from experience at this finish that the wind comes from the right so you want to be on the left. But the road sweeps right and the peloton naturally moves to the right, so I knew the gap would open on the left. In the end, I was able to do what I did last year and surf around the peloton with 300-200 to go and sprint from there.”