Stage 4: Camel Race Track - Al Khor Corniche (159.8km)
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Hello again to another episode of "Sprinter's Paradise"! We're starting to the second half of this year's Tour of Qatar with today's 4th stage, which is the longest of all. If you have a look at the map, you will understand why: Instead of just riding straight from start to finish, the riders will have lots of sharp turns, and they will be travelling in any possible direction during the stage.
The riders will take off in Al-Shahaniya, a city located about 40km north-west of Doha, and hosting Qatar's most famous camel race track. Besides the camels, this town has a population of roughly 200,000 humans.
The road first leads mainly to the west, but after what is almost a U-turn, the riders will take direction north-east and pass the first intermediate sprint after 45.9km. The stage continues in an average north-east direction, and we will see the second intermediate sprint after 129.4km - which means 30km from the finish line.
These final 30km mostly lead us south-east, where the riders arrive on the coastal road in Al Khor. The city is located just a few kilometers south of yesterday's start venue Al Thakhira, and was founded and ruled by the same tribe (Al Muhannadi). Even though the city's main industry remains fishing, there are a lot of employees of the nearby oil industries among the 30,000 people living there.
The route with its loads of direction changes could have been even more interesting if there had been some wind - but there is none. And I guess many riders are thankful for this and are hoping to finally get a calmer stage. Who has recovered best from the tough first half of the race?
At least it seems that Senyenov, De Buyst, O. Goldstein, Arifin, Bouet and Gonzalez Salas do have relatively fresh legs, as they attack very soon and obviously think to be capable of doing a 160km breakaway!
The peloton isn't very happy about this first attempt, though, and quickly reels them in - just to immediately see the next attack by Arifin, De Buyst, Malori and Weinstein.
This time, it's just Teunissen who doesn't like this new group, and he keeps pushing all alone for 10km, until he's all tired. He almost brought the peloton back to the race leaders, but this 15" gap is finally enough for them to get free.
However, his effort was enough to tire Arifin, who can no longer keep up with his breakaway companions.
The pace in the peloton wouldn't drop for long, though, as it's now Pluchkin who seems to be bored of all those flat roads and wants to make the race a bit more interesting. The peloton wouldn't let him go, though, and so we still have four riders in the breakaway.
As we're rapidly approaching the first intermediate sprint, some sprinter teams still have hopes of getting the points there and are pushing now.
To no avail, however, as De Buyst wins takes home the said intermediate sprint:
1. De Buyst
2. Malori
3. Bouet
Weinstein can't keep up anymore, either, the pace on the first 45km being seemingly too high for him.
The peloton, having given up the chase for the moment, is now a minute behind. It's Jungels leading - what's EA Vesuvio's plan?
Now we see, it's once again Kneisky attacking! He soon passes Weinstein and makes the leading trio a quartet again with 100km to go. Weinstein trails by 49".
The peloton, where now see mostly well-known workhorses in front - Edmondson, Prado, De Bod, Gjolberg, Barbier, Frison, O. Goldstein, O'Shea, Arifin and Rathe - is a further 2'01" back, which makes almost 3 minutes behind the leaders.
As we're in a relatively calm stage of the race where the speed isn't too high, Weinstein gave all he has and finally re-joins the leading group! Which means we can now definitely name these 5 the Breakaway of the Day. Kneisky and Malori are the flat powerhorses among them, whereas De Buyst is definitely the strongest sprinter - as he has already shown at the first intermediate sprint. Bouet and Weinstein would probably need a surprise attack to have any chance of winning.
The peloton is still 2'40" back when Weinstein shows up at the front again.
And it's mainly the teams of two of the most frequently mentioned pre-race favorites, Festina with Vlatos, Weber and Barbier, and Moser with Prado, Boros and Danacik who have upped the pace, to get the gap down to 2'08" with 55km left to ride.
Except for the peloton cutting back the gap second by second, nothing happens, and the escapees comfortably take the second intermediate sprint as well. Weinstein seems to have recovered very well, but De Buyst easily takes the maximum points again:
1. De Buyst
2. Weinstein
3. Malori
The lead is now down to 1'33", and we have 30km left. So it once again looks like a perfect race planning by the peloton, and we seem to be set once again for some nice sprinting action on the final kilometers!
Everything still seems to work out as it should, as the breakaway group is in sight with 20km left and a gap of just 48". Evonik has now joined the chase with Dzamastagic, Nooytens and Neilands. Whereas we can spot one Podium Ambition jersey as well ( Nelson), we're missing the leader's team, Aker. Is it a good strategy to let the others to all the work?
As he alread feels the peloton breathe down his neck, Kneisky goes all-in with 10km to go.
However, he was first caught by his companions, and then the peloton seals the end of today's BotD with 7km to go. Karatzios leads the pack, where we mainly see Festina, Podium Ambition and Moser jerseys in the first positions.
On the next 4 kilometers, trains were forming, and sprinters were trying to get the right wheel if there were no more teammates left. And so, with 3km to go, things are really getting in place and we have the following picture:
Cataford
Blythe
Edmondson
Postlberger
Petit
Dzamastagic
Stauff
Nelson
Van Stayen
Sergent
Ewan
Guerao
Coquard
Hnik
Fiedler
Grosu
Dakteris
Oss
McCormick
van den Berg
Guardini
Rathe
Karatzios
Boom
Kristoff
Boeckmans
Swift
While Moser have worked hard before, they are now struggling to get Bewley into a good position. Howard, Kennaugh and Groenewegen aren't at the very front, either, but still ahead of Bewley.
Now we have three beautiful and fast moving trains in place: Blythe - Dzamastagic - Van Stayen Edmondson - Nelson - Ewan Petit - Stauff - Coquard
The Festina train has got two additional trailers attached with Guardini and Kristoff. Guerao, Grosu, Boeckmans and Kennaugh are not far, though. 1.8km left!
Flamme rouge, and whereas the Festina and Podium Ambition leadout still looks close to perfect, Van Stayen's distance to his leadout seems to be quite large.
Stauff
Nelson
Dzamastagic
Coquard
Ewan
Guardini
Van Stayen
Guerao
Kristoff
Grosu
Boeckmans
Swift, Kennaugh, Howard and Groenewegen seem to be out of contention for the podium, while Bewley has even given up and is dropping further back.
It's going to be very close once more! With 500m to go, the leadouts have completed their work, even though Dzamastagic is still in the first row. But whereas things are looking great today for Coquard and Van Stayen, Ewan is struggling a bit more to finish off his team's great work! He's on one line with Kristoff, but Guerao and Guardini have passed him. Grosu is in Guerao's slipstream, whereas Boeckmans loses some ground, with Kennaugh and Soupe rapidly approaching from behind!
Just 300m left, and still Van Stayen is in the lead, with Guerao, Coquard, Guardini and Kristoff very closely behind. Grosu and Ewan with some more ground to make up!
With 200m to go, Van Stayen is still ahead, but Kristoff and Guerao are far from being defeated yet! Ewan has closed in on Guardini and Coquard, while Grosu tries to find a breach.
Boeckmans has finally found his top speed, as he's still ahead of Kennaugh, a very strong Dzamastagic and Soupe, who tries to still get something out of this stage for Moser. Swift, Groenewegen and Kemboi are next, passing another leadout rider in Stauff.
We're on the last 100 meters, and Kristoff now has the edge over Van Stayen, Coquard and Guardini. Ewan, Grosu and Guerao will need something special now to still get a podium or even the win!
Alexander Kristoff resists the attacks of his opponents and gets a deserved win! Even though Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ didn't do a lot of work today, the Norwegian fought his way out to the front and finally celebrates a big triumph!
Bryan Coquard finally transforms his team's work into a bitter-sweet 2nd place and gets himself back into contention for the GC! Michael Van Stayen takes the last podium spot, ahead of Andrea Guardini and Eduard Grosu.
While the two other sprinters having a great train got themselves a podium spot, Caleb Ewan only takes 6th - which at least will give him some more hopes for the U25 standings. Oscar Guerao, Kris Boeckmans and Peter Kennaugh get places 7 to 9, and race leader Ben Swift concludes the Top 10. At least he secured the yellow jersey for at least one more day.
Here are positions 11 to 20:
11. Groenewegen
12. Kemboi
13. Howard
14. Dakteris
15. Soupe
16. Rathe
17. Leung
18. Baska
19. Nelson
20. Dzamastagic
Unlike all stage winners before him, Alexander Kristoff only makes one appearance on the podium - he visibly enjoys standing up there!
Ben Swift keeps the GC and point standings lead, whereas Gasper Katrasnik maintains a 9" lead on Ewan in the youth standings. Ewan now has 16 seconds on Kemboi, which may or may not be sufficient - but there's still one stage with lots of bonus seconds available!
Aker - MOT keeps the lead in the team standings. Indosat got the stage win, but as there again was a split on the last kilometers and their third man was in the second group, they got out of contention in this standing. There are still 16 teams having the same time, though.
With Swift only getting a single bonus second and Howard being even further back, the GC remains incredibly tense before the last sprint stage. We now have 12 riders within 25". And as there's still lots of bonus seconds available tomorrow, we won't make a prediction on the final outcome here.
Tour of Qatar 
