Stage 3 in Tour of Qatar was won by Mark Cavendish in a sprint against Tom Boonen, but Radioshack Nissan Trek showed teeth when four Radioshack Nissan Trek riders managed to stay in the front of the peloton, and young rider Robert Wagner finished 9th.
At the first kilometer 4 riders broke away, and eventually redhead a 5min 25sec gap.
With 30km left of the race, the wind started to cause issues, and the peloton split into three echelons, with Fabian Cancellara, Gregory Rast and Tony Gallopin in the first group that also contained Boonen, Farrar, Cavendish, Renshaw, Gilbert and several other riders.
3 kilometers later the gap to the leading group had shrunk to below one minute, and at 25km to the finish the chasing group had eaten the last seconds of the gap.
Wagner was happy to get help from his teammates, but was not satisfied with his legs today.
Top 10 Stage 3
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling
2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
3 Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) GreenEdge Cycling Team
4 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Rabobank
5 John Degenkolb (Ger) Project 1t4i
6 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda
7 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Katusha
8 David Boucher (Fra) FDJ-BigMat
9 Robert Wagner (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan
10 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Katusha
Radioshack Nissan Trek, Stage 3
9 Robert Wagner (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan
25 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack-Nissan
37 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan
39 Gregory Rast (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan
78 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
90 Markel Irizar (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan
101 Joost Posthuma (Ned) RadioShack-Nissan
105 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) RadioShack-Nissan
Top 10 General Classification
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 6:47:49
2 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:06
3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:08
4 Johan Vansummeren (Bel) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:12
5 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Garmin-Barracuda
6 Robert Hunter (RSA) Garmin-Barracuda
7 Mikhail Ignatyev (Rus) Katusha 0:00:17
8 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Sky Procycling 0:00:18
9 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Katusha
10 Adam Blythe (GBr) BMC Racing Team 0:00:19
Radioshack Nissan Trek, General Classification
17 Robert Wagner (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:23
21 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:26
31 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan
52 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan 0:01:52
53 Markel Irizar (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan
99 Gregory Rast (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 0:03:30
100 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) RadioShack-Nissan 0:03:31
101 Joost Posthuma (Ned) RadioShack-Nissan
