Tour of Qatar (st. 5)
José Joaquín Rojas takes 7th into coastal, penultimate finish in Qatar, winds again causing major selection. Kristoff (KAT) claims third win; Terpstra (EQS) stays in gold
Alexandr Kristoff (KAT) claimed his third stage victory in the 2015 Tour of Qatar on Thursday as a photo-finish sprint saw him hold Peter Sagan (TCS) after 159km covered at 50kph average, strong winds in western Qatari soil leading to a hectic finale in the loop around Madinat Al Shamal.
The final circuit caused many other echelons to add to the initial ones, when Rojas (ahead), Valverde, Lastras and Amador (behind) fought into two main splits -Ventoso, punctured, and the other Blues were into a third one-, only coming back after 60km of pure suffering.
The elite group eventually included Andrey, Enrique Sanz and José Joaquín, who got boxed in when searching for his position and had to stay content with 7th place in the course's penultimate sprint. The Qatari stagerace will come to an end on Friday with 113km ending with a 10-lap circuit in the Doha Corniche.