Qatar: Moving Day

Another win for Haussler. Boonen suffers mechanical. Heinrich Haussler can be quoted as saying "today was all about timing" after the conclusion of stage 3. He was referring to the sprint finish, but it really sums up the whole day.

Unfortunately for Tom Boonen, timing was just not on his side. Just as the peloton was about to split, Boonen flatted and was forced to wait for a change while the leaders of the race surged ahead through the windy desert.

He eventually got back up and running, but was forced to join a weaker chase group and never really made any ground up on the leaders.

Awful situation for him to lose the race like this, but those are the breaks. Meanwhile, the absence of the gold jersey made the racing up front all the better.

Present were 11 of the 18 riders still within a minute as well as Mark Cavendish.

It was an interesting day for Cav, who looked doomed to miss the split, worked his way back into the lead group but just got caught at a bad time late in the race and was unable to contend for the sprint.

Instead HTC-Highroad was putting their money on Renshaw. It is uncertain what their strategy would have been with Cav present for the sprint, but it may have worked out better this way.

Renshaw launched quite early, and Haussler easily took advantage from his back wheel. Leopard's Daniele Bennati had to settle for 3rd.

Renshaw took an intermediate sprint also, so he starts tomorrow the same distance behind as he was today, just behind a different leader. And though I'm sure Bennati was not thrilled with 3rd, it did move him into 3rd overall trailing by a difficult but not impossible 15 seconds.

This is the second day in the past 3 where the wind has disrupted the peloton and caused the race to break apart like it did. I'm reasonably sure that Boonen wouldn't have missed the split if he didn't have that mechanical. What would have happened from there is a mystery but what is for sure is that Haussler will be carrying the target on his back for the rest of the week.

Stage Results

1. Heinrich Haussler

2. Mark Renshaw

3. Daniele Bennati

General Classification

1. Heinrich Haussler

2. Mark Renshaw -4

3. Daniele Bennati -15

4. Juan Antonio Flecha -18

5. Jeremy Hunt -28

6. Dominique Rollin -28

7. Roger Hammond -30

8. Gabriel Rasch -37

9. Marcus Burghartd -42

10. Gert Steegmans -46

Points

Heinrich Haussler

Young Rider

Nikolas Maes

Team Standings

Garmin-Cervelo