The Tour of Qatar may be one of the flattest races of the entire year, but that certainly does not translate to easiest. Unless your name is Tom Boonen, who got off to a great start in search of his 4th title (or 7th podium) with a stage victory on Monday afternoon. His odds are looking pretty good right now.
Why are his odds looking so good you may ask? It's a lot easier to mark 18 riders than it is 125.
The race was broken apart into pieces today as the peloton shattered under the ridiculous pace set by the front of the field.
Right off the bat, 26 riders split from the front and 48 dropped off the back leaving a split of 50 riders stuck in the middle.
But that number would grow slowly but surely as the blistering 55 km/hr pace set by the leaders took it's toll on the field.
Among those up front to crack early were Mark Cavendish (who is certainly built for high speeds but not for long distances) and Alex Dowsett and eventually that group was brought down to 19.
GC leader Lars Boom, 2nd place Cancellara, eventual winner Boonen, sprinters Renshaw, Haussler, Hammond, Hunt, Brown, Rollin, and Bennati, and strong overall riders Flecha, Van Summeren, Burghardt, Rasch, O'Grady, Klier, and Maes were all that remained of the lead group and they were pulling away.
Disaster soon struck for Boom, who was forced to stop for a while with stomach problems and eventually rejoined the 1st of 4 chase groups.
At this point, there was no peloton, but rather separate pockets of riders blazing their way across the barren desert of Qatar.*Now would it be fair to say that the 18 riders who finished in the lead group are the only guys with a chance at the GC for the rest of the week? Probably, considering that at least one of them is bound to be a part of any move from here on out and many of them were the strongest riders in the race. Many riders (especially those in 2nd, 3rd, 4th chase groups) watched their GC hopes ride away into the desert sun today.*
And they kept riding. By the time the leaders had gotten to the line they had opened over a 5 minute gap to the nearest "pocket" of chasers.
Even the sprint was fast. Renshaw launched, but Boonen responded with a huge burst from about 300m out and then held off a late acceleration by Haussler to grab his first stage of the year.
The rest the riders eventually rolled in:-Chase 1 at -5:01
-Chase 2 at -12:30
-Chase 3 at -14:49
-Chase 4 at -17:35
Theoretically I guess one or two of the riders in chase 1 could escape on a breakaway to get back into contention but everyone else is done. If I had to pick anybody from chase 2 to do it, I'd take either Boom, Danilo Hondo, or Filippo Pozzato but they are long shots at this point.
Right now it's all about the top 18.
Stage Results
1. Tom Boonen
2. Heinrich Haussler
3. Mark Renshaw
General Classification
1. Tom Boonen
2. Mark Renshaw -4
3. Fabian Cancellara -8
4. Juan Antonio Flecha -9
5. Heinrich Haussler -11
6. Daniele Bennati -16
7. Andreas Klier -16
8. Gert Steegmans -17
9. Jeremy Hunt -19
10. Dominique Rollin -19
11. Gabriel Rasch -20
12. Stuart O'Grady -20
13. Roger Hammond -21
14. Marcus Burghardt -28
15. Bernhard Eisel -40
16. Graeme Brown -46
17. Nikolas Maes -53
18. Johan Van Summeren -58
Points
Tom Boonen
Young Rider
Nikolas Maes
Team Standings
Team Leopard-Trek
Also note that I have a bit of a concern with this year's race. Not only are the crowds dismal (see the finish line photo above) but there was already almost one near major accident when a fan pushed the track barrier in front of Flecha at the prologue. Get yourselves together TOQ organizers!
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