Today’s stage of Tour of Qatar ended with a mass sprint. German Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) won the stage ahead of Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Theo Bos (Belkin). But before the mass sprint, the peloton had to reel in a four-man breakaway with Belgian champion Stijn Devolder.

The breakaway had a 6 minute gap, but Lotto-Belisol and Omega Pharma - Quick Step wouldn’t allow the breakaway to go all the way. The breakaway was reeled in with 7 km to go and the stage was settled in a mass sprint.

“I never thought we would make it to the finish because with the wind the peloton can play with you how they want,” Stijn Devolder said to the Trek webpage. “Maybe in the last lap, when we still had two minutes, I thought there’s a little chance, but then you see them coming again, and you know it’s over.”

Director Dirk Demol said it was a hard day to be a part of a breakaway. He admits they are out of the GC, but they should still be fighting for a stage win.

“It was a difficult day to be in the breakaway,” said director Dirk Demol. “The four guys did a good job, they will be pretty tired after this. I was telling the boys that we are out of GC, but there is a chance to go into a breakaway.  So Stijn was the one who managed to get in the right breakaway after 10 kilometers. It was again a fast stage, but there was more headwind, so that is why the peloton was not really splitting.”

Stijn Devolder said he has had the best day of the week so far.

“It was the best day of the week for me,” Devolder continued. “I suffered a little more than the other days but there was no stress and I prefer that. I was a little nervous at the start because this is where I had a bad crash last year. We started in the same place, and that was on my mind, so I tried immediately to be in the escape.  In the end, it was a good training day with the wind – a very good training day.”

Starting at 12.45 CET you can follow the final stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview here.