Welcome to the third stage of the 2013 Tour of Qatar. Another pancake flat stage awaits us, so the clear favourite must be Tom Boonen, who has looked unbeatable so far while the likes of
Ben Swift Daniele Bennati
will try to beat him, especially Bennati showed a great speed yesterday, but was hurted by the bad position his train left him in.
It looks like there won't be a great fight for the breakaway today, as our first four attackers:
And, before the gap gets bigger, Juan Abenhamar Gallego Martin joins the breakaway, causing the peloton to accelerate a bit, reducing the gap to 50''.
Finally, the work of Puma - SAP and, interestingly, (ARM) PFG - Armavia, causes the first breakaway to be caught, although Gallego Martin is going again, just to be caught after his last attempt. The peloton is going quite fast, and that, combined with the wind, which is particularly strong today, could cause havoc.
With no breakaway, the peloton arrives to the first intermediate sprint with bonus seconds at stake, and Lucas Sebastián Haedo goes first under the banner, with (ARM) Ivano Lo Cicero second and Ben Swift third. tom Boonen wasn't even bothered by the sprint, while Daniele Bannati went way too late.
As we see, Haedo didn't stop after the intermediate sprint, so he's alone in the head of the race, 1'10'' ahead of the peloton now. Brave attempt by the Argentinian, although possibly bound to fail.
Another two riders join Haedo now, they are Evgeni Sokolov and Dion Beukeboom. They have 2'03'' now, so looks like finally we have our breakaway of the day.
The advantage of the front three tops at 6 minutes with 80km to go, when Puma send 3 riders to pull in the peloton, and the gaps starts to go down. It doesn't look like today's break will surprise the peloton, but the wind keeps being quite strong, so anything could happen.
Second intermediate sprint, and Heado takes it again easily, while Sokolov edges Beukeboom for the second place. The gap is now down to 2'50'' with 35km to go, so everything is under control for the peloton.
As the peloton goes under the 20km banner, they can already see the breakaway in the distance, as the gap has fallen to 1'35''. Interesting to see Armavia again active in the front, maybe Lo Cicero is feeling especially good today?
10km to go, and the break is all but caught, but the helicopter shot shows us how stretched the peloton is, we could have echelons in any moment.
And finally, the break is caught with 7.5km to go. May the sprint preparation begin!
And there we have it, the peloton has split up! No big names are behind though, beyond riders like Antoine Lavoine or Lars Crocket, Michael Vanderaerden, Andreas Stauff.
The sprint trains emerge, and quite strange they are today! Vesuvio - Accumalux has Pedro Merino Criado and Steven Caethoven, but Ben Swift isn't even among the first 30 in the peloton, so they are pulling from
Gianni Meersman Erik Mohs Tom Boonen Daniele Bennati
instead. Meanwhile, Puma has Enrico Gasparotto and Thomas Vedel Kvist pulling from... no one.´
Dan holloway is now trying to move towards Puma's train, if it can be called that way. Looks like Bennati, Sam Bewley and Kobe Vanoverschelde try to follow the American.
2km to go, and seems like Bennati is about to get to his train's wheel, and his team mate Meersman is holding up the POkerstars sprinters a bit.
1500m to go, and Kvist is leading out Bennati now. The Italian is followed by Bewley, who finally has found a good position today, while the Vesuvio and Puma domestiques who are moving backwards have definitely disrupted Pokerstars' train.
And Kvist is going so fast he's opened a gap to Bennati! Surprising behavior by the Puma riders, with the leader not bothered to follow his leadout man!
Kvist passes under the flamme rouge with a nice advantage, while it's Steven Caethoven who goes now, could this be a leadout men battle?
Bennati isn't finding his best sprinting legs, and Boonen is coming quite fast from behind, but Kvist have a very good advantage, and it could well be enough for the Dane.
Kvist almost has this, and Bewley and Boonen are the fastest in the second group, where Gasparotto is also doing a fantastic job after working in the leadout.
The Dane is definitely in a whole different league today, and Boonen and Bewley will fight for the remaining bonus seconds.
Simply amazing victory by Thomas Vedel Kvist! His leader Daniele Bennati didn't have the legs, and he took an impressive win with a really long sprint.
Behind, Tom Boonen takes the second place, and almost wraps up the GC, considering that both Bennati and Swift failed to even make the top 10. Good third place too for Sam Bewley, who will need more time bonuses if he wants to fight for the podium, or at least be clear of the threat of the time trialists in the last stage, while Enrico Gasparotto and Dan Holloway round up the top 5, showing Puma's and Pokerstars' depth in the sprints.
Really disappointing result today for Daniele Bennati and Ben Swift though, as both will need a miracle to shake Boonen from his lead now, and failing to score bonus seconds again could mean they are in danger to be caught by the ITT specialists in the last stage.
Stage Results:
1
Thomas Vedel Kvist
Team Puma - SAP
3h22'55
2
Tom Boonen
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
3
Sam Bewley
Milka - AVG
s.t.
4
Enrico Gasparotto
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
5
Dan Holloway
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
6
Kobe Vanoverschelde
Aker - MOT
s.t.
7
Pedro Merino Criado
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
8
Steven Caethoven
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
9
Erik Mohs
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
10
Mathieu Bernaudeau
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
11
Daniele Bennati
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
12
William Bonnet
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
13
Fabian Cancellara
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
14
Morten Reckweg
Team B&O
s.t.
15
Michael Van Stayen
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
16
Ben Swift
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
17
Jacob Fiedler
Koenigsegg
s.t.
18
Maxime Bouet
Milka - AVG
s.t.
19
Maximiliano Richeze
UBS - BMC
s.t.
20
Paride Grillo
Koenigsegg
s.t.
21
Jack Bauer
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
