One day after narrowly missing out on a podium spot, Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) got close to his first win of the season when only André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) was faster than the Lithuanian in the penultimate stage of the Tour of Qatar. The team plans to analyze the sprint carefully in a final attempt to take a win in tomorrow's last stage.

Aidis Kruopis sprinted to second place in Madinat Al Shamal on the fifth stage of the Tour of Qatar. André Greipel (Lotto Belisol), who missed out yesterday to Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) by millimetres, took the stage victory. Théo Bos (Belkin) rounded out the podium. 

Kruopis benefited from the strong lead-out performed by his ORICA-GreenEDGE teammates, who could be seen massed on the front during the final 20 kilometres. With the sprint impending, Kruopis managed to push his way ahead of Greipel and behind Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol) in the final run in towards the line.

When Greipel opened his sprint, Kruopis cunningly hopped on his wheel. Although Kruopis attempted a second kick to come around Greipel, his efforts were for naught, as the German powered across the line by several bike lengths. Kruopis also opened up a gap to those in his wake.

"There was a strong wind again today, but the direction it took couldn’t make the splits," Orica-GreenEDGE sports director Laurenzo Lapage said. "The boys had to wait until the last 20 kilometres or so to bring Aidis into a good position. They did their job well.

"In this race, it’s better to take initiative than wait for the others," he addded. "This is why we chose to get involved with the chase work. We don’t race with radios here in Qatar, so Mat Hayman is playing an important role as captain on the road and making decisions with the boys."

The team now only has one more chance to take a stage win and plans to prepare tomorrow's final sprint stage carefully.

It was great work by the team during the race," Lapage said. "I was happy to see them all working well with each other. The only mistake they made was that they came up too early to the front. We’ll watch the sprint many times tonight, and we’ll discuss what was good and what needs to be better for next time. We have one more chance. We’ll give it another big try."

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