The world champion positioned himself perfectly in the closing stages and took it up with 250 metres to go before burning off his rivals for a clear-cut success.

Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale) was second, with his team-mate Peter Sagan in third.

Cavendish, who also landed Tuesday's third stage, has now won both sprints he's contested this season and as a result of this latest triumph has moved into seventh on the overall standings.

He is 1:05 behind overall leader Tom Boonen who continues to hold a 31 seconds advantage over Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda). Team Sky duo Juan Antonio Flecha and Bernhard Eisel are third and fifth respectively.

Afterwards Cavendish was quick to thank his team-mates for the work they did leading up to the finish, explaining: "The guys took it in turns to come up and keep me sheltered up at the front - I always had one of them with me at every point in those last kilometres and that was incredible.

"The wind was a real factor at the end and was changing direction a lot so you couldn’t really do a big lead-out train. It was a scrap and everyone was pretty fresh. With the tailwind I could go from around 250-300 metres out and I just carried it to the line."

Having opted out of the sprint on the opening stage as he recovered from illness, Cavendish has now won both bunch finishes since and he added: "It’s nice to get two wins - I won two stages here in 2009 and that was one of my most successful seasons so it’s good to get off to a great start with Team Sky and in the world champion’s jersey."

Control

The stage had been far more controlled than the previous two days when crosswinds had helped splinter the peloton.

A five-man break went away early but heading into the final 10km the last two riders out on their own - Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha) - were swallowed up at that point, with Team Sky among the teams doing the work as they looked to set up Cavendish.

There was a moment of alarm when Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) fell with just over 8km to go right in the middle of the peloton but apart from holding up Farrar there were no other casualties.

It all meant the peloton was together for the finish but a roundabout 1.3km from the line contibuted to a hectic finale as Garmin-Barracuda tried to boss it from the front.

Flecha kicked going under the flamme rouge to string it out and Bernie Eisel and Davide Appollonio were also on hand for Team Sky but it was Cavendish who worked his way into the ideal position to launch his finishing kick.

He'll now look to make it three wins in the concluding stage on Friday which is the traditional run north along the coast into Doha.