Despite spills and splits in the bunch, Tom Boonen (QuickStep) just keeps stacking up victories at the Tour of Qatar.

The Belgian bomber won for the second day in a row despite getting caught up behind a late-stage crash that pushed the race leader into a second group with about 40km to go in Wednesday’s jittery 147.5 third stage.

When the group came back together, QuickStep drove it home to deliver Boonen to the line in winning fashion in what’s his 13th career Tour of Qatar stage win

“It was a battle of nerves out there today. There were a lot of crashes. I’ve never seen that many crashes in Qatar before,” said Boonen, who widened his lead to 13 seconds over Steven de Jongh. “It was one hell of a fight.”

Qatar Press Room

Photo: Andrew Hood

The uneven roads and another day of blasting desert winds took their toll on the stressed-out peloton.

The 7th edition of the Qatar race saw its first major breakaway as Volodymyr Diudia (Milram) went on a solo flier that opened up an 8-minute gap on the relieved peloton, which was more than content to see the pace slacken with a rider off the front against stiff headwinds.

As the chase revved up in the closing 50kms as the race was pushed along by a brisk tailwind, scores of riders hit the deck as the peloton rumbled over rough uneven roads.

What else did you expect at the Tour of Qatar?

Photo: Andrew Hood

Among the writhing victims going down were Marco Bandiera (Silence-Lotto) and Steve Bovay (BMC), who broke his clavicle.

“Some sections of the road are like glass, and some sections are like cheddar cheese,” said Tony Cruz (BMC), who came through 22nd at 17 seconds back. “My legs are feeling good. I’d still like to try to win a stage and maybe finish in the top 10.”

Boonen got split into a second chase group when riders toppled in the middle of the pack with about 40km to go, opening up a gap between a lead group that include Slipstream-Chipotle’s Chris Sutton, Magnus Backstedt, David Millar and Julian Dean.

QuickStep wasn’t worried because it had De Jongh – who started the day second to Boonen – up in the front group with three of teammates. Boonen could sit back and watch the panicked second group lead the chase.

“We took a bit of a gamble. We had de Jongh up front so we knew we had the jersey protected,” Boonen said. “It wasn’t up to us to work. Then it came back together and then we made a good sprint.”

With QuickStep and Silence-Lotto ramping up the sprint once the group came back together, the peloton was stretched out and finally snapped on the final high-speed run to the finish. The bunch chattered into pieces under the late pressure.

Boonen made easy work of Danilo Napolitano (Lampre-Fondital) with Chris Sutton (Slipstream-Chipotle) coming through fifth for his second top-5 in a row.

Sutton is in a dogfight with Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto) for the best young rider’s jersey. Sutton wore it after Sunday’s team time trial, but Van Avermaet snagged it after taking second in Monday’s sprint.

Van Avermaet came through ahead of Sutton in fourth thanks to some crafty racing by a Silence-Lotto teammate.

“The entire team was riding for me today. I had good legs for the sprint and I hoped to be up there,” said Sutton. “A Lotto rider chopped in front of me and just sat up and that messed up my sprint and I had to come around him.”

Everyone gets the chance to hit the repeat button in Wednesday’s 131.5km third stage from Khalifa Stadium to Al Khor Corniche with more of the same: wind, sand and sun.

UPDATE