Mark Cavendish closes in on Tour of Qatar victory after third stage win in a row

Mark Cavendish all but confirmed overall victory at the Tour of Qatar by sprinting to a third win in a row on stage five.

Stage five took the riders on a flat, 154km route from Al Zubara Fort to Madinat Al Shamal in the far north of Qatar. An early breakaway group darted up the road but they were hauled back in time for Cavendish to win the second intermediate sprint ahead of Bernhard Eisel (Team Sky) and Taylor Phinney (BMC). The latter two riders then formed a breakaway with Cavendish's team-mate and chief lead-out man, Niki Terpstra, the Dutch national champion, only to be caught with 14km to go. Omega Pharma - Quick-Step immediately took up station on the front of the peloton and while in previous days they had struggled to maintain their numbers, this time they entered the final 2km with five men still shepherding Cavendish. With 350m to go and only Terpstra remaining in front of him, Cavendish launched his sprint and although Hutarovich attempted to counter-attack, he was unable to deny the former world champion a fourth victory of the season. Cavendish added: "The last two days I have had 100 per cent commitment from everyone but we weren't together. We had a word last night and from the word go today they rode incredibly." Stage five result 1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step, 3:11.11; 2 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Ag2r-La Mondiale, same time; 3 Aidis Kruopis (Lit) Orica-GreenEDGE, st; 4 Adam Blythe (GB) BMC, st; 5 Luke Rowe (GB) Team Sky, st; 6 John Degenkolb (Ger) Argos-Shimano, st; 7 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha, st; 8 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ, st; 9 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling, st; 10 Roger Kluge (Ger) NetApp-Endura General classification 1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Omega Pharma -Quick-Step, 13:30.59; 2 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC, +15secs; 3 Taylor Phinney (USA) BMC, +20; 4 Adam Blythe (GB) BMC, +22; 5 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team Sky, +24; 6 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC, +25; 7 Michael Schar (Sui) BMC, +25; 8 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky, +29; 9 Luke Rowe (GB) Team Sky, +30; 10 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +30