Tour of Qatar 2016 Stage 3

photo credits @ Tour of Qatar

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) took a dominant victory in the time trial event at today’s Tour of Qatar, after the Norwegian rider traversed the 11-kilometer course in a time of 13:26.98, beating the long-standing time of Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo). 

Meanwhile, BMC’s Manuel Quinziato put in a strong performance to capture third spot on the podium. 

As a result, Quinziato’s third place finish was enough to move him into the same position in the overall classification, just six seconds behind Cavendish, with his teammate, Greg Van Avermaet, now sitting in fourth.

The big disappoint of the day, was Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), who began the day in second overall after his victory in stage 2.

Kristof now sits 45 seconds behind Boasson Hagen, after losing nearly a minute in the time trial.

Race Highlights

Jesse Sergent (AG2R-La Mondiale) was the first of the trial trial specialists to set the fastest time of 14:24:59, along the Lusail motor circuit, only to see his benchmark toppled by the former Dutch national champion, Lieuwe Westra, who took some 15 seconds off the New Zelander’s time.

Van Emden later set the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint, ultimately beating his compatriot, by 18 seconds.

Despite losing poised for victory, Van Eden’s time was later vanquished by Boasson Hagen, who eclipsed the Dutch rider’s time by 25 seconds. 

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Top 20 Finishers

1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 0:13:26
2 Jos Van Emden (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:25
3 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:00:29
4 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:32
5 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:00:40
6 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Astana Pro Team 0:00:43
7 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 0:00:44
8 Jordan Kerby (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
9 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:45
10 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:00:47
11 Nils Politt (Ger) Team Katusha 0:00:51
12 Lars Boom (Ned) Astana Pro Team
13 Hugo Houle (Can) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:57
14 Jesse Sergent (NZl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:58
15 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha
16 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha 0:00:59
17 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team 0:01:00
18 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
19 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team 0:01:03
20 Damien Gaudin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:04

General classification after stage 3

1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 6:53:35
2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 0:00:26
3 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:00:32
4 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:34
5 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 0:00:45
6 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:48
7 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha 0:01:02
8 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 0:01:07
9 Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:01:10
10 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:01:15
11 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre – Merida 0:01:18
12 Zakkari Dempster (Aus) Bora-Argon 18 0:01:21
13 Arnaud Gerard (Fra) Fortuneo – Vital Concept 0:01:24
14 Michael Morkov (Den) Team Katusha 0:01:32
15 Rudiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Argon 18 0:01:37
16 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:47
17 Jos Van Emden (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:02:11
18 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:02:26
19 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:02:33
20 Nils Politt (Ger) Team Katusha 0:02:37