We stay in Doha. And the favorites for the second race of the Qatar Airways CC remain the same.
Assan Basayev was impressive in yesterday's sprint, with Tyler Day and Leonid Krasnov as the most dangerous challengers. Hossein Nateghi proved his speed on final meters, as well as Georgos Tzortzakis.
Cherif Abdallah has to bounce back from his disappointing performance.
Four riders quickly built a breakaway, attacking right from the start: Adel Barbari (Algeria), Nikita Umerbekov (Astana), Neofytos Sakellaridis (Hellas) and Roman Senyenov (Kazahk NT). With 40km to go, they lead by 1'45"..
Another two laps have been raced and with less than 30km remaining, the peloton starts to take control of the action. With 2'05" in arrears, teams like RusVelo, Africa 2 and - a bit surprising - Astana share the work at the front of the bunch.
The gap is down to 1'20" with now 3 laps to go (17km). Time for some more riders to break clear: yesterday's most aggressive rider Konstantin Volik (Uzbekistan) is joined by Jimmy Pranata (Champion System), Behnam Khalilikhosroshani (Tabriz) and Kazakh National Team sends a second rider with Aleksei Kolessov!
And three more riders join the action: unsurprisingly it's Tomohiro Kinoshita (Nippo), accompanied by Evgeni Popov (Katusha) and Riadh Ghdamsi (Africa 2). They quickly establish a 25"-lead, with the early escapees now leading by only 35".
Team RusVelo is setting a brutal pace in the pack now. 10 riders in the break may be too dangerous with only 12km to go.. the latest attacks were short-lived and the 7-men-group is swallowed by the bunch immediately.
Oumaru Minoungou (Africa 1) goes on the attack.
Again empty-handed. Volik's late-attacking-companion Sonomtseren Delgerbayar makes his move with more than 1 lap to go..
Again.. empty-handed. And as the peloton enters the bell-lap, all escapees have been caught. Like yesterday, Team Astana looks in total control: all of their 5 riders sit at the front of the bunch and pace hard, sharing the work with RusVelo.. and also Katusha has two riders there.
And you know why? Aleksandr Mironov launches his attack with 3km remaining! Why wait for the sprint? His powerful acceleration gives him enough of a gap to call his move a success - so far..
1,5km to go, Mironov still holds on to his 15"-lead as he comes down the stretch now.. the peloton is preparing the sprint, with Team Astana leading most of the favorites down the road:
Lutsenko Tleubayev Basayev Manan Anuawar Day Iglinski Tzortzakis Ben Youcef Abdallah Nateghi
Mironov crosses the "flamme rouge" with a couple of bike lenghts ahead Astana-lead-out Ruslan Tleubayev! Baseyev still hasn't made his move, same goes for Manan, who stays behind him.. Anuawar accelerates right behind, with Day and Iglinski catching his wheel.
And now goes yesterday's winner Basayev! Mironov still maintains his lead, but he looks exhausted and stopped sprinting already.. Manan moves forward as he knocked off Basayev's wheel, Day, Tzortzakis and Nateghi are right behind.. on the right side, it's Anuawar with his acceleration trying to pass Manan, Iglinski still hangs on.
What a close sprint this will be! Both Mironov and Tleubayev fall behind, it's all about the favorites now, from left to right:
Baseyev (still leading), Tzortzakis, Tleubayev (fading), Day, Manan, Nateghi (a bit behind), Anuawar
With the finish-line approaching it's still very close, but two things have changed: Basayev couldn't hold on to his speed, losing several positions now.. and Nateghi came from far behind with enormous speed, Denis Galimzyanov had his wheel and enters the battle for today's win!
And the winner is Hossein Nateghi! What a finish he had. He found a way through and didn't get boxed in, winning this race in style.
The battle for podium was as close as it could have been: Ahmad Haidar Anuawar takes the 2nd ahead of Galimzyanov, who had the perfect position behind Nateghi, it seems.
Tyler Day continues to score points, he sprinted for 4th, just ahead of Manan and Tzortzakis.
Krasnov, Bazayev, Jelloul and Iglinski round up the Top-10, as Cherif Abdallah once again disappointed as 11th today. We can expect a thrilling final stage, as the sprint-competition looks interesting here!
Assan Basayev was impressive in yesterday's sprint, with 
Tyler Day and 
Leonid Krasnov as the most dangerous challengers. 
Hossein Nateghi proved his speed on final meters, as well as 
Georgos Tzortzakis.
Cherif Abdallah has to bounce back from his disappointing performance.
Manan
Ben Youcef
Adil Jelloul
Wen Hao Li
