Tom Boonen won the opening stage of the Tour of Qatar 2012
Tom Boonen of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step won the opening stage of the Tour of Qatar 2012.He finished the 142.5 kilometre stage 1 in a total time of 3 hours, 11 minutes and 32 seconds.
Adam Blythe of BMC Racing Team and Peter Sagan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale occupied the second and third positions, whereas Tyler Farrar, Daniel Oss and Mark Renshaw achieved the fourth, fifth and sixth spots, respectively.
The 31-year-old shared his joy after the race, “I am delighted to have won but it’s too early to tell whether I can win the GC on Friday. If the weather stays good like this it will be the time trial and then four more sprints so it will be hard”.
The racing conditions in Qatar suit the Belgian, it is his fourth overall win at the event after 2006, 2008 and 2009 editions of the race.
He deposited 15 important points to his account while Adam Blythe and Peter Sagan achieved 12 and 9 points each.
Adam Hansen of Lotto Belisol Team won the opening sprint of the race while Tyler Farrar of Team Garmin-Barracuda dominated during the 82 kilometre sprint 2 of the event.
Adam Blythe, Peter Sagan and Daniel Oss were the top three young riders on the day.
Boonen explained that the final kilometres of the race were very quick. The whole peloton was sprinting all the way to claim the top spot. Moreover, the increasing crosswinds made it really tough towards the later part of the race.
Tom is now looking ahead at the 11.3 kilometre Team’s Time Trial stage 2 at Lusail. He is optimistic that his side will come up with its best performance to maintain the top position at the team’s classifications.
He briefed, “We’re going to do everything possible to keep the jersey in the team time trial tomorrow, I will push the team as hard as I can and we will see how we do. This is a race that we always want to do well in as a team and so far it’s looking good”.
Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step is leading the team’s classifications with Team Liquigas-Cannondale and Lotto-Belisol Team claiming the second and third positions.
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