Here we are again - welcome to stage number three of this year's Tour of Qatar!
Today, we're starting at Qatar's east cost, in Al Thakhira. The city is located about 60km north of Doha, and has a population of roughly 100,000. Initially founded by pearl divers and fishermen, the oil industry has recently taken over, making the city grow substantially.
From there, riders will make a short trip north-east, before coming back and then heading north-west for most of the stage. The intermediate sprints are taken after 59.6 and 84.3 kilometers, before the peloton then again turns north-east to reach the destination, Madinat ash Shamal, for the first time. The city's name translates to "City of the North", which precisely describes where it is located. Its population is barely over 5,000.
However, before reaching the finish line, the riders will have to take an additional loop, before sprinting for glory on the city's main road.
Today, we only have some high altitude clouds, and almost no wind at all. So the conditions are perfect for an easy race - will the riders once again make it hard?
And we've got a new record, as today it takes 3km until we see the first attacks! The first four men trying to escape are De Bod, Neilands, Puccio and Venturini, closely followed by PCT-beast Pluchkin, Vermote, van der Hoorn and van den Berg.
As some might have feared, it's been an incredibly fast race until now. The peloton wasn't happy with that 8-man-breakaway, and SPAR, Aker, Festina and Podium Ambition have been chasing for more than 20km at full speed to finally catch the group.
Of course, it doesn't take long until we see the next attacks. This time, it's Yatsevich, Kochetkov, Gonzalez Salas, Van Winden and R. Goldstein trying their luck.
Which in turn seems to make EA Vesuvio and Gazelle highly unhappy, and the pace is up again!
EA Vesuvio stops leading when Kneisky attacks and tries to bridge the gap, but to no avail. As we are approaching the first intermediate sprint, the top sprinters take again hope to catch the escapees and gain themselves some points (and bonus seconds), so they send their teams to the front again.
But the breakaway makes it to the intermediate sprint, which is easily won by Kochetkov:
1. Kochetkov
2. Van Winden
3. R. Goldstein
The peloton however is still less than a minute back, and the speed in the breakaway group was too fast for Gonzalez Salas, who slowly falls back.
He is replaced in the front group by Teunissen, who attacked from the pack and easily left the Spaniard behind. Meanwhile, the peloton is led by Indosat (Russom, Arifin), eBuddy (O. Goldstein, Howson) and Aker (Gjolberg), now trailing by the new record gap of 1'08" and swallowing Gonzalez Salas.
Teunissen rides such a high pace that his poor companions, who have already done a lot of kilometers at full speed, drop one by one, until he's all alone.
However, just before the second intermediate sprint, Venturini once again gets away from the bunch and almost beats the Flying Dutchman - but just almost:
1. Teunissen
2. Venturini
3. Kneisky
Kneisky had attacked just before the second intermediate sprint, and even closed in on the leading duo - but soon after, their adventure is done for today.
As soon as they're reeled in, the pace finally drops - after more than 100km! Which means there are barely 40km remaining, and the riders can now finally breathe a bit.
But as if the race hadn't been hard enough already, the sprinter teams again up the pace with 30km to go. The sprinters (we can see Coquard and Howard) are already looking for a good position with 20km to go, as they might fear a split scenario like on stage 1. Guerao was spotted at the very back of the peloton, he may want to get ahead quickly... However, I guess there's little hope for Samolenkov and Serebriakov, who are trailing as they always do. And what's up with Nizzolo? It seems like he's gone on strike because Zmorka pinched him the leading position.
The race has been fast during these last few kilometers, so no attacks were possible. And a split hasn't happened, either, so everything is set up once more for a Grande Finale! The sprinter trains are again forming, and it seems as if Coquard will finally get the support he desires!
The Podium Ambition, Aker, Indosat and Evonik trains seem to be well underways, too, whereas we're missing eBuddy and Moser at the front today.
We have only 3km left, and Aker and really seem set to take their revenge for yesterday's fiasco! Here's the situation:
Oss
Yzeiraj
Blythe
Gjolberg
Van Avermaet
Dzamastagic
Weber
Speirs
Van Stayen
Stauff
Guardini
Fiedler
Sergent
Groenewegen
Danacik
Coquard
van den Berg
Varga
Barbier
Bewley
McCormick
Kemboi
Kristoff
O. Goldstein
Nelson
Kennaugh
Guerao
Korsaeth
Scully
Grosu
Howard
Rathe
S. K. Andersen
Swift
Van der Sanden
Boeckmans
Oh well, the Aker train is rolling, but they've somehow forgotten Swift behind! Enough time to fix this?
Wow, what a kick by Stauff! He accelerates on the left side of the road, and only Coquard and Kennaugh seem to be able to follow!
However, it's still 2km to go - a long 2km to go for this trio! Meanwhile, Swift has managed to attach to his train again - an impressive team effort shown by Aker, having six men in the first thirty positions!
This is going to be really hard work for Coquard, as he already has to pass his fading leadout under the red kite! 15 riders now have a minor gap:
Stauff
Coquard
Kennaugh
Van Stayen
Speirs
Guardini
Groenewegen
Scully
Guerao
Nelson
Kristoff
Swift
Boeckmans
Ewan
Dzamastagic
Howard is in the second group, meaning that Swift or Guardini would likely take over the leader's jersey if they win the stage! Grosu and Bewley have been surprised by the split, too, and are behind as well!
That's going to be incredibly close! Except for Speirs, all helpers have gone, and all fast men are on their own: Guardini - Van Stayen - Groenewegen in the front row, followed by Kennaugh - Coquard - Guerao Swift - Kristoff Boeckmans Ewan - Speirs
300m to go, and Groenewegen is now clearly in the lead. While we can see Kennaugh and Coquard fading, a very strong Kemboi tries to reach the front group, with Howard struggling to keep his wheel!
Swift and Groenewegen are now side by side, but the Brit brings much more speed to the final 200 meters!
A superb Boeckmans is able to stay in Swift's splistream and is fighting for the podium against Guerao! However, Guardini, Van Stayen, Kristoff and Ewan haven't abandoned, either!
Now Swift has taken over the lead within the final 100 meters! And it seems to be Groenewegen vs Boeckmans for second, unless someone else finds an additional gear!
And we can see Kemboi closing in on Coquard and Kennaugh - it would be huge for him to win some bonus seconds!
He's done it! After coming in second on the first stage, Ben Swift wins stage number three of this Tour of Qatar! He was the strongest today, and I dare to say he had the best team as well!
It's been close, but Kris Boeckmans secures second ahead of Dylan Groenewegen and gets the PCT team a very nice PT podium! 3rd should still be a decent result for the Dutchman, though.
Behind, Oscar Guerao secures 4th, ahead of Michael Van Stayen. It's a tight gap again between Andrea Guardini and Caleb Ewan, who take 6th and 7th, ahead of Alexander Kristoff.
Yet another bad result for Coquard, as he even loses the fight against Salem Kemboi to just sneak into the Top 10.
Behind him, the following riders take positions 11 to 20:
11. Kennaugh
12. Howard
13. Grosu
14. Dzamastagic
15. Scully
16. Speirs
17. Bewley
18. McCormick
19. Van der Sanden
20. Van Avermaet
Once again, the winner takes it (almost) all! Congratulations to Aker - MOT and especially Ben Swift, who wins the stage and takes over the GC and points standings! However, we now have 10 riders within 25 seconds, so we're definitely looking forward to an exciting second half of this tour!
Gasper Katrasnik still has a solid lead in the young riders' classification, even though Ewan has again cut off some seconds and is now trailing by 17". Kemboi now has a minor margin on Leung and S. K. Andersen - could it be a decisive one?
Today's strength of Aker - MOT pays in the team standings as well, as they take the lead. However, there are still 17 teams having the same overall time, which will probably only change with the epilogue.
There was a gap of 2'49" for some riders in the end, but there were only riders who had already been distanced in stage one.
How could we summarize this stage? Ben Swift had a team that did great work for him, and he finished it in style. The two-times-champion leads the GC - can he get the record third win? Coquard's team worked a lot, as well, but if they were too late in yesterday's stage, the compensated too much today and pushed too early. But there disappointing results as well for Kennaugh, Howard, Grosu and Bewley - which isn't that bad for the race, as everything is still completely open!
The third stage was ridden at horrendous speed as well - will some riders start to have sore legs? We'll find it out in the second half of the 2019 Tour of Qatar, starting with tomorrow's 4th stage!
Tour of Qatar 
