“With a bit of luck, I don’t see why I can’t get a decent result by the end of the week”

Former world champion Tom Boonen takes stage 2 of the Tour of Qatar today, his 21st stage victory at the event.

By Gerard Cromwell

Sam Bennett drifted out of the top 10 at the Tour of Qatar today and lost his white jersey as leader of the U25 classification as strong winds and unsheltered roads combined to cause much fracturing and regrouping in the peloton throughout the stage.

After fighting to maintain his place at the head of affairs for most of the stage, Bennett missed a split in the last 40km, finishing in the final third of the peloton. It was just over seven minutes down on stage winner Tom Boonen of Omega Pharma Quickstep in Al Khor Corniche.

The Carrick-On-Suir native wasn’t alone in missing the front group however, as the Omega Pharma Quickstep and Tinkoff Saxo teams decimated the field in the strong crosswinds.

Although he has now lost the lead in the white jersey competition to former An Post team mate Andy Fenn of OPQS, Bennett was upbeat about his chances of getting up in one of the bunch finishes before the race finishes.

“With a bit of luck, I don’t see why I can’t get a decent result before the end of the week,” he said.

The first split of the day came after just 13km, with Bennett making the 40-strong lead group, before a turn into a strong headwind saw the whole bunch come back to them around 12km later.

Gatis Smukulis of Katusha then ventured out front on his own after 89km but while the Latvian saw his lead reach 2'20’’ within 10km, another right turn into a crosswind saw the Omega Pharma Quickstep and Tinkoff-Saxo teams break the field up again.

Bennett was caught in the second half of the split and going backwards.

“When it split at the beginning, I made the first group," he said.

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"Then it went piano for a long time until about 40km or 50km to the finish. I was in a bad position again but I made the second group but got caught out at a small roundabout and got stuck as last man in the group.

"I got spat out the back and went from there into the third group but had to do a bit of off-road riding to avoid a crash there and ended up in the fourth group, so it wasn’t a great day.”

Up front, the whole Omega Pharma Quickstep team of race leader Niki Terpstra, along with a Tinkoff Saxo quintet of Daniele Bennati, Karsten Kroon, Michael Morkov, Matti Breschel and Irish born Chris Juul Jensen, drove a further split in the field after 104km.

A 23-man group caught lone leader Smukulus, who then had the misfortune to puncture out of that breakaway.

At the line, former world champion Tom Boonen racked up his 21st career stage victory at the Tour of Qatar, beating Tinkoff Saxo’s Danish champion Michael Morkov and Jurgen Roelandts of Lotto Belisol.

Bennett rolled in with the final portion of the peloton, one place ahead of former world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, but sounding upbeat and determined to fight hard in the next few days.

Feb 9th to 14th: Tour of Qatar (UCI 2.HC)

Feb 10th, Stage 2: Camel Race Track - Al Khor Corniche (160.5km)

General Classification

Young Rider General Classification