Alexander Kristoff who had already won stage 2, won the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar while Niki Terpstra retained the leader's jersey. Arnaud Démare finished 17th after a difficult sprint and will now try a new strategy.

The scene of the fourth stage was not favourable for Arnaud Demare: headwind prompted the race not to have a real race and allowed all riders to reach the final with a lot of freshness. The last fifteen kilometers were hotly contested, forcing the teams to work a lot. FDJ did a solid work but things didn't go as planned.

"Arnaud was with his teammates and riding in fourth position but then he lost their wheel," said FDJ sports director Martial Gayant. "William [Bonnet], Mickael [Delage] and Matthieu [Ladagnous] didn't realize it as they couldn't look back at such a high speed. Arnaud made an effort to get back but that cost him his power. Furthermore, there was a split in the final roundabout. The sprint was over. We met after the stage and decided a new method that will be applied tomorrow."

Arnaud will be now ride in third position behind William Bonnet while Mickaël Delage will remain behind Demare. If there is any concern, Delage will be there to take over and position his sprinter.

The verdict will be given tomorrow in Madinat al-Shamal, which will host the finish of a stage that is set to mainly have cross- and tailwind. The race will obviously be very different...