Mark Cavendish has won the opening stage of the Tour Of Qatar.
The first stage which featured the likes of Mark Cavendish was a 176km stage from Dukhan to Al Khor Corniche and started at a fast pace.
A group of thirty riders were soon dropped and a front group of twenty one riders which included Kristoff,Bystrom, Kuznetsov, Morkov, Mark Cavendish, Boassen Hagen, Farrar, Andersen, Stamsnijder, Waeytens, Van Avermaet, Oss, Quinzato, Schar, Sam Bennett, Dempster, Selig, Gerard, Guardini, Modolo and Jones.
Alexander Kristoff took the first sprint ahead of Cavendish and Sacha Modolo as the front group dropped to nineteen riders with a 1.15 lead over a second group.
With fifty kilometres to go, the gap had dropped to 58 seconds before Cavendish took the second sprint ahead of Kuznetsov and Greg Van Avermaet.
As the speed ramped up, Oss and Jones were dropped from the front group.
Teams jostled for position but those in the front group stayed clear and it came down to a sprint between them.
There was Mark Cavendish of Dimension Data to take the win in 3.28.31 ahead of Sacha Modolo of Lampre, Andrea Guardini of Astana, Alexander Kristoff of Katusha and his team mate Viacheslav Kuznetsov.
Cavendish, thanks to the time bonuses on the finish line, leads the race by eight seconds going into stage two.
Source: DSG
