Behind a strong second-place effort in the fourth stage, Frenchman Damien Nazon moved into first place overall at the five-day Tour of Qatar. Lampre rider Alberto Loddo took the stage win, a 125.5km run from Ras Laffan to Doha.

Nazon’s lead is a scant one second over German Thorsten Wilhelms. Sweden’s Magnus Backstedt is six seconds back.

Previous day’s overall leader, Brazilian Luciano Pagliarini, had a rough day during the fourth stage, falling out of the top 10 all together. Other notables include Telekom’s Jan Ullrich who finished 12th on Thursday and is 13th overall, and Laurent Jalabert who was 17th and now sits fifth overall.

The Tour of Qatar concludes on Friday.

Copyright AFP 2001