Mark Cavendish and Sam Bennett sprint side-by-side up the finishing straight, with Cavendish unable to pass the Irishman despite his best efforts.
Okay, so neither of them won the stage at the end of the day, but the side-by-side sprint between Sam Bennett and Mark Cavendish was an interesting aside at the Tour of Qatar, as the video below shows.
And despite Cavendish’s best efforts, he simply could not get past the Bora-Argon 18 Irishman.
Katusha won the day with Alexander Kristoff thanks to a fantastic lead-out in a wind-affected final sprint.
Apart from those men in the Katusha train, only Bennett, Cavendish and the BMC duo of Greg Van Avermaet and Manuel Quinziato were in the front group sprinting for victory.
In truth, Van Avermaet did very well to get 2nd given how strong and organised Katusha were and how influential the breeze was in the charge to the line.
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And while another Katusha man - Jacopo Guarnieri – held on for 3rd after his lead-out efforts for Kristoff; Bennett and Cavendish went head-to-head just behind the top three.
However, despite coming out of Bennett’s slipstream as the breeze buffeted the riders on their right shoulders, Cavendish was only able to get level with the Irishman.
Finding himself unable to pass, the Dimension Data man took himself out of the breeze again and slotted into Bennett’s wheel; staying there to cross the line 5th.
Cavendish may have the leader’s jersey and Bennett may be still hunting for a stage win, but it was still interesting to see the Irishman the much stronger and faster of the two at the end of 189km in the saddle from Al Zubarah Fort to Madinat Al Shamal.
Bennett Vs Cav
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