Four men in the lead
A bright sunshine welcomed the 121 riders for the start of the 5th and final stage of the Tour of Qatar at 12h48.
Like on the previous day, the first kilometres were cleared at a very high pace and at Km 10, four riders managed to break away: Rapinski (PHO), Krivtsov (A2R), Van Speybrock (JAC) and Reinerink (SHM). At the first intermediate sprint (km 42) Van Speybrock beat Reinerink and Krivtsov while the peloton was 4’15 adrift. The gap grew to a maximum 5’10 at km 48,5.

Worry for Michaelsen
The four riders’ advantage slowly dropped down from then on and the escapees were finally caught at km 132 when the peloton was on the final laps of the city circuit.
Two laps from the finish, golden jersey Lars Michaelsen (CSC) suffered a puncture but was helped back to the peloton by his teammates.

McEwen the fastest
Despite some attempts in the closing kilometres, victory was to be decided in a bunched sprint. Australian Robbie McEwen (DVL) eventually won the stage ahead of Usov (A2R) and Boonen (QSD).
Lars Michaelsen keeps the overall leader’s golden jersey and therefore wins this 4th edition of the Tour of Qatar. The point’s silver jersey remains on the shoulders of Belgian Tom Boonen while Matti Breschel (CSC) wins the best young rider classification.

Three questions to Lars Michaelsen (Team CSC), winner of the 4th edition of the Tour of Qatar.

It must be a huge satisfaction to win this Tour of Qatar?
It’s always nice to win. For riders like myself, it’s not that often that it happens. So winning is very important and I’m very happy. In a race like the Tour of Qatar, you can’t win without having a strong team. Everybody saw this year that Team CSC was very strong.
I haven’t won a lot of stage races before. I won an event in South Africa. And concerning my recent wins, I won a criterium last year in Washington. In 2003 I won two races in the four days of Dunkirk and the Tour of Hessen.

You’re at the peak of your shape...
It’s always easier to enter the season to come with confidence after a win. It proves that you prepared well in December. If you don’t, you can’t manage a result like this. It’s also very important to be in top shape now to be good in March and April.

What are the plans for now?
I still have another training camp to do and then I’ll start off normally with the Het Volk, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and the Tirreno Adriatico. I have a typical program for the Flanders Classics finishing with Paris-Roubaix in April.