Alexander Kristoff made a victorious double in the Tour of Qatar, winning his second stage of this race. Today Team Katusha’s leader won the fourth stage in Mesaieed, outsprinting Slovakian Champion Peter Sagan from Tinkoff-Saxo and Nikias Arndt from Giant-Alpecin.

"It was a lot of head wind during the whole day, so the pace was slow and race became easy until the final kilometers. In the final everybody was fresh, so the sprint was very chaotic! It was very important to get a good position. My teammates did a perfect job; they managed to put me in an ideal position in the last km, so I just managed to keep Peter Sagan behind me after a long sprint. Now I am happy with my second stage win; I really like to win here in the Tour of Qatar," explained Alexander Kristoff.

“I’m normally a slow starter, I didn’t expect to win here. I’m perhaps going better than I thought I would be.

"Because there was a breakaway today, everybody was fresh in the final 10km. I lost my lead-out many times, but they put me in a good position eventually. I had to work hard to get to the front at the end.

“I felt I had to go early [in the sprint], otherwise somebody would jump from behind. So I started a little bit easy, and I tried to go harder. I was tired but I just held Sagan off. It was close."

“Classics are a different story, but I’m better than last year,” he added. “If I do the classics better, then they can be worried.”

"Today’s stage differed from the stage we had two days ago, when Alex won for the first time. During the entire stage there was a strong headwind, so a lot of teams tried to control the situation in front of the group. We tried to provide maximal support to Kristoff during the whole day, while in the final we were very careful and attentive at all corners and roundabouts. The guys did an excellent job. They brought Alex to the front in a good position after which Alex made a perfect sprint, bringing us another victory. A nice stage and an amazing win! The Tour of Qatar is very successful for our team so far but we still have two hard stages ahead. After each success the team gets more responsibility and pressure but we are ready for it," added Team Katusha sports director Torsten Schmidt.

The fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar started in Al Thakhira and ended in Mesaieed after 165,5 km of racing. The race organizers had to let the stage start one hour earlier due to the wind situation but in the end it did not create any problems. From the start a group of three riders went away from the peloton taking a 4-minute advantage. However, with more or less 19 km to go, this break was completely neutralized. In the final it was another massive sprint won again by Alexander Kristoff.

Alexander Kristoff moves up to 5th position in the general classification at just 21 seconds behind the race leader Niki Terpstra from Etixx – Quick Step. Moreover Katusha’s rider is the new points classification leader, wearing the silver jersey.

Tomorrow the 5th stage of the Tour of Qatar – 153 km from Al Zubara Fort to Madinat ash-Shamal - will take place.