Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) had a perfect opportunity to take a stage win in today's stage of the Tour of Qatar as he was one of very few sprinters to make the front group in the crosswinds. Disaster struck 4km from the finish when a puncture dashed all hopes of an elusive victory.

Aidis Kruopis flatted out of contention of the front group on the second stage of the Tour of Qatar. The only ORICA-GreenEDGE rider to make the reduced bunch that formed in the crosswinds, Kruopis was unable to contest the sprint won by Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step). Mat Hayman was the top finisher for ORICA-GreenEDGE in 31st place at 48”.

Kruopis made the cut when thing split in the crosswinds as Jens Mouris and Svein Tuft got caught up in the crash and several others from the Australian outfit were stuck behind the fallen riders. While things looked good for the Lithuanian initially, the late race mechanical dashed his hopes for a result.

"It was a windy, stressful stage yet again," sports director Lorenzo Lapage said. "All the riders in the bunch were nervous from the start. It was not possible for the early breaks to do anything because the speed in the bunch was too high.

"Big splits in the bunch happened when we made a right-hand turn into the headwind at 110 kilometres. Unluckily, we were caught out because of a massive crash just before the split. Mouris and Tuft were involved. Kruopis made the first group. Jens Keukeleire and Mat Hayman found themselves in the second group. Because of the crash, the other guys were in the different group behind. In addition to  the crashes, we had eight flat tyres today and against that bad luck, it’s not easy to fight back in Qatar.

"When we got the names from the first group, it looked good for us because Aidis was the only real sprinter in there with Boonen," he added. "Boonen was the wheel to look for in the finish.

"Aidis said he felt really well in the final, but after his flat, he could not come back to the group. The most important thing for Aidis is to recover well for tomorrow. He will go for the sprint again in the other stages because his condition is good. 

Orica-GreenEDGE will have a chance to bounce back in tomorrow's time trial where the team has a number of potential winners.

"We’ve now lost the chance to go for a great result overall with Jens Mouris," Lapage said. "We lost the chance yesterday for Svein Tuft and Michael Hepburn. They will still look for a good result, but the time trial is still one we have earmarked for those guys. 

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