Qatar: Guardini Takes Sprint, Renshaw Seals the Deal

In an unpredictable and strange tour, the last stage was about as conventional and safe as they come in Qatar. But that's still not very conventional...or safe.

Friday's stage followed the conventional "small breakaway, catch, sprint" pattern and that was A-ok for Mark Renshaw.

Greg Van Avermaet and Gediminias Bagdonas were able to escape after a pileup near the rear of the peloton. None of the race leaders were involved, but Tom Boonen was caught up in the wreck.
The 2 gave it a great run, but were eventually caught by the charging HTC-Highroad, Garmin-Cervelo, and Leopard-Trek lead peloton.

The stage was set for a Renshaw-Haussler showdown to decide the Tour...

But somehow neither were anywhere the front for the bunch finish, and Italian Andrea Guardini was able to take advantage with a powerful kick at the line.

Renshaw, who picked up a bonus second at each of the intermediates as well, was safely in the peloton and kept his 8 second lead over Haussler intact. Daniele Bennati also finished with the bunch and kept his 3rd place spot on the podium.
All in all this was an incredibly successful week for HTC, who were forced to go to their backup plan (Renshaw) after Cavendish crashed in the prologue. They were hoping that maybe he'd be able to grab them a stage (which he did), but I'm not sure many people thought he'd take the whole event.

So nice to see a man who is usually referred to as a great helper finally get some recognition for himself.

Garmin-Cervelo kept their season rolling on the right track with 2 stages and a 2nd place for Haussler. Those guys are on fire right now.

Daniele Bennati and Leopard-Trek probably will take mixed feelings from this week. Bennati will obviously be frustrated with his near-misses in the sprints, but overall his team did a fine job protecting him and setting him up for the opportunities. 3rd place is nothing to hang your hat on.

And you have to feel bad for Tom Boonen, who was cruising in fine form until an unfortunate mishap on stage 3 took him completely out of contention. His crash on stage 5 was just insult to injury. As for a positive, he showed no lingering signs of his season-destroying injury he suffered last season.

Stage Results
1. Andrea Guardini
2. Francesco Chicchi
3. Theo Bos

Final Podium
1. Mark Renshaw
2. Heinrich Haussler
3. Daniele Bennati