BiciRace.com :: 2006 Tour of Qatar

2006 Tour of Qatar, Stage 4

Tour of Qatar, Qatar

Stage 4, Al Zubarah - Qatar Olympic Committee, 144K

2 February

Eisel Ends Boonen Qatar Romp

Eisel Over Top Guns, photo: ASO

Bernhard Eisel (Française Des Jeux) stopped the Tom Boonen show in Qatar. The Austrian won the sprint in stage 4 of the 5th Tour of Qatar, behind was Erik Zabel (Milram) and then the World Champion in third. Due to the Belgian's dominance in the first three stages he retains the leader's golden jersey.

Warm weather and a gentle breeze greeted the riders for the start of stage 4. But the day turned brutal when riders started attacking from the gun. By 47K a huge group formed that contained a whopping seven CSC men. From this group formed the day's main escape: Murilo Fischer (Naturino-Sapore di Mare), Aitor Galdos Alonso (Panaria-Navigare), Nico Eeckhout (Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen) and Thorwald Veneberg (Rabobank).

The group's lead grew to a max of seven minutes by the feed zone (80K) but behind they were closely marked by Phonak. By 20K to go it was only Fisher and Eeckhout with 3'40" in hand. By this time il Treno Blu stepped up the pace for Tom Boonen and the duo's move was looking grim.

Eeckhout hung on until the final meters and then the day's hero was washed away to make room for the men of speed. The World Champion had his men jamming hard to launch him into sprint orbit, but... but... But it was the young (24, 25 on the 17th) Eisel who came past in the final meters. Zabel, or signor consistent, also nipped the Belgian at the line. Bravo Eisel and Bravo Eeckhout!

Results: 3:23'46" (42.843 K/h)
1 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Française Des Jeux
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram
3 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step
4 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Phonak
5 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team CSC
6 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano
7 Sergio Marinangeli (Ita) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
8 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
9 Christophe Detilloux (Bel) Française Des Jeux
10 Hans Dekkers (Ned) Agritubel
11 Nick Ingels (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto
12 Robert Hunter (RSA) Phonak
13 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Phonak
14 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) Unibet.com
15 Paride Grillo (Ita) Panaria-Navigare
16 Wouter Van Mechelen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
17 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Gerolsteiner
18 Sebastian Lang (Ger) Gerolsteiner
19 Aivaras Baranauskas (Ltu) Agritubel
20 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC
21 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano
22 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Phonak
23 Uros Murn (Slo) Phonak
24 Rik Reinerink (Ned) Skil-Shimano
25 David Boucher (Fra) Unibet.com
26 Marc De Maar (Ned) Rabobank
27 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano
28 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
29 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank
30 Alexandr Dymovskikh (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
31 Hervé Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Cofidis
32 Sebastian Siedler (Ger) Milram
33 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Quick-Step
34 Enrico Poitschke (Ger) Milram
35 Carlo Westphal (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud
36 Benoît Sinner (Fra) Agritubel
37 Nico Mattan (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto
38 Sébastien Minard (Fra) Cofidis
39 Christoph Meschenmoser (Ger) Skil-Shimano
40 Luca Ascani (Ita) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
41 Andrey Mizourov (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
42 Björn Schröder (Ger) Milram
43 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Davitamon-Lotto
44 Erik Dekker (Ned) Rabobank
45 Gerben Löwik (Ned) Rabobank
46 David Vitoria (Swi) Phonak
47 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud
48 Florian Stalder (Swi) Phonak
49 Lars Michaelsen (Den) Team CSC
50 Jan Boven (Ned) Rabobank
51 Artur Gajek (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud
52 Koen Barbé (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
53 Mathieu Heijboer (Ned) Cofidis
54 José Alberto Martínez (Spa) Agritubel
55 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Phonak
56 Ilya Chernyshov (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
57 Geert Omloop (Bel) Unibet.com 0.10
58 Guido Trenti (USA) Quick-Step 0.11
59 Ben Johnson (Aus) Agritubel
60 Christian Knees (Ger) Milram
61 Maarten Den Bakker (Ned) Milram
62 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) Quick-Step
63 Wim De Vocht (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto
64 Massimiliano Mori (Ita) Naturino-Sapore di Mare 0.14
65 Ralf Grabsch (Ger) Milram 0.40
66 Gilles Canouet (Fra) Agritubel
67 Chris Horner (USA) Davitamon-Lotto
68 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick-Step 0.52
69 Thorwald Veneberg (Ned) Rabobank 0.58
70 Stefan Cohnen (Ned) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
71 Martin Müller (Swi) Milram 1.20
72 Kevin Hulsmans (Bel) Quick-Step
73 Servais Knaven (Ned) Quick-Step 1.22
74 Murilo Fischer (Bra) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
75 Nico Eeckhout (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
76 Kevin Van Impe (Bel) Quick-Step 1.48
77 Aitor Galdos Alonso (Spa) Panaria-Navigare 2.11
78 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 2.29
79 Thomas Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner 4.37
80 Sven Krauss (Ger) Gerolsteiner
81 Evert Verbist (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
82 Fabien Patanchon (Fra) Française Des Jeux
83 Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
84 Felix Odebrecht (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud
85 Alexey Lyalko (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
86 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis
87 Alexey Zaitsev (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
88 Alexandr Dyachenko (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
89 Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe) Team CSC
90 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec
91 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
92 Christian Leben (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud
93 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team CSC
94 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) Unibet.com
95 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
96 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Panaria-Navigare
97 Tim Klinger (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud
98 Martin Mares (Cze) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
99 Lubor Tesar (Cze) Wiesenhof-Akud
100 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) Française Des Jeux
101 Frank Hoj (Den) Gerolsteiner
102 Luis Laverde (Col) Panaria-Navigare
103 Moisés Aldape Chavez (Mex) Panaria-Navigare
104 Mickaël Delage (Fra) Française Des Jeux
105 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Française Des Jeux
106 Lilian Jegou (Fra) Française Des Jeux
107 Cyrille Monnerais (Fra) Française Des Jeux
108 Arno Wallaard (Ned) Skil-Shimano
109 Bart Vanheule (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
110 René Weissinger (Ger) Skil-Shimano
111 Paul Martens (Ger) Skil-Shimano
112 Miguel Rubiano Chávez (Col) Panaria-Navigare
113 Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner
114 Nicholas Roche (Irl) Cofidis
115 Martin Pedersen (Den) Team CSC
116 Damien Monier (Fra) Cofidis
117 Kasper Klostergård (Den) Team CSC
118 Camille Bouquet (Fra) Unibet.com
119 Nicolas Crosbie (Fra) Agritubel
120 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto
121 Erwin Thijs (Bel) Unibet.com
122 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) Unibet.com
123 Gabriele Colombo (Ita) Naturino-Sapore di Mare
124 Matteo Priamo (Ita) Panaria-Navigare
125 René Haselbacher (Aut) Gerolsteiner
126 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Unibet.com
DNF Tristan Valentin (Fra) Cofidis
DNF Valeriy Dmitriyev (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec

GC:
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step 13:25'42"
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram 0.07
3 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Phonak 0.20
4 Robert Hunter (RSA) Phonak 0.30
5 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC 0.31
6 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Quick-Step
7 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Phonak 0.33
8 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Phonak 0.34
9 Nick Ingels (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto
10 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano

Points
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step 115
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram 111
3 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team CSC 57
4 Paride Grillo (Ita) Panaria-Navigare 56

Young riders
1 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC 13:23'13"
2 Nick Ingels (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 0.03
3 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
4 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano 0.05
5 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Wiesenhof-Akud 1.36
6 Koen Barbé (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 10.13
7 Wouter Van Mechelen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 11.06
8 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Française Des Jeux 12.16
9 Martin Pedersen (Den) Team CSC 12.17
10 Paride Grillo (Ita) Panaria-Navigare 12.20