Cavendish seals Qatar hat-trick

Published on 08/02/2013 00:00

Mark Cavendish celebrated victory at the Tour of Qatar for a third successive day to enhance his overall lead.

The sprint win on the 154-kilometre fifth stage from Al Zubara Fort to Madinat Al Shamal again justified the Manxman’s off-season move from Team Sky to Omega Pharma-QuickStep.

Cavendish, who claimed a ten-second time bonus with victory, holds a two-second lead going into today’s final stage, the 116km route from Sealine Beach Resort to Doha Corniche, as he goes in search of the second overall win of his career.

Five BMC Racing riders are 
behind Cavendish, with American Brent Bookwalter second and Briton Adam Blythe nine seconds adrift in fourth.

Cavendish is confident of success. “We knew if we got through today it would be easy tomorrow,” he said. “The last two days of course we wanted the big commitment, but we really got out the unit today. We just rode incredible as a unit.”

lThe Olympic Park will be the start venue in a new two-day cycling festival that will be “a fantastic feast of velocipedes”, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced yesterday.

More than 70,000 cyclists of all ages and abilities are to take part in the four separate events on 3-4 August, the highlight of which will be a 100-mile race from London through Surrey, which will make up the Prudential RideLondon festival.

Johnson and double Olympic cycling champion Laura Trott have already signed up.