Former world champion Tom Boonen won the second stage of the Tour of Qatar over 135km from Al Wakra to Doha on Monday, moving into the overall leader's gold jersey in the process.

The Quick Step rider beat Milram's Alessandro Petacchi and Frenchman Jean-Patrick Nazon in a sprint finish to snatch the gold jersey from his Dutch teammate Steven de Jong, who held it after Quick Step's team time trial victory in Sunday's opening stage.

The defending Tour of Qatar champion Boonen admitted he had been lucky to win after Pettachi's Milram team launched their leader's sprint too early.

"Winning is good. Beating Petacchi is even more important, particularly physchologically," said the Belgian. "I decided not to launch the sprint too early. It was a change in tactics from last year when I sometimes found myself alone at the front and in the wind. Today I went at the right moment."

Five escapees held a four minute advantage with 40km still to race but Belgians Bert Roesems and Kenny Dehaes, Dutchman Piet Rooijakkers, Kazakh Dimitri Muravyev and Christophe Riblon of France could not hold off the chase bunch led by Quick Step pair Kevin Van Impe and Sebastien Rosseler.

The race came down to a sprint finish with Team Milram on one side of the road and Quick Step hogging the other.

Boonen put in a strong spurt in the last 50m to win the stage by just a few centimeters.

For Boonen's compatriot Tom Steels (Predictor-Lotto) Monday's second stage spelled the end of the road in Qatar.

A bad crash 30 meters from the line when he was impeded by Australia's Graeme Brown left him nursing a fractured left collarbone and facing an early flight home.

"I don't blame Graeme, these things happen in sprints," Steels said after leaving hospital with six stitches.

Herman Frison, Steels' sporting director, said the cyclist would return to Belgium either Tuesday or Wednesday for an operation.

The race continues on Tuesday with a 140km around around Doha.