Tinkoff-Saxo’s captain Peter Sagan finished 4th on stage 1 of Tour of Qatar, as the team took on its third race of the season – however not as planned. Mid-stage on the 128km route, Peter Sagan crashed hard due to a small rock on the road surface. In spite of the pains, the Slovak champion showed determination by participating in the final sprint, which José Joaquin Rojas won.

Sport Director Tristan Hoffman confirms that Sagan has only suffered superficial wounds.

“A rock on the road surface caused Sagan to crash in the peloton. He has lost skin and is naturally in pain, however he hasn’t broken anything. I’m very impressed by his willpower. He didn’t have to participate in the final sprint but he stayed up there in the front during the rest of the stage and finished 4th”, says sport director Tristan Hofman and adds:

“Overall we’re happy with the stage. Of course we wish that Peter hadn’t crashed but the team worked well to protect him afterwards and we’re still in the mix”.

Stage 1 from Dukhan to Sealine Beach took the riders on a 128km course across the Qatar peninsula along the open roads of the country’s interior. The stage was highly affected by shifting wind directions with crosswinds fracturing the peloton at several points during the stage.

Going into the final 25km, Matti Breschel rode away in a breakaway together with Astana pair Lars Boom and Lieuwe Westra but the trio was pegged back by the chasing peloton with few kilometers to go.

“Everybody was nervous in the wind today. The pace was really high on the sections with crosswinds, which meant that peloton split up and created a hard race. Michael Mørkøv also crashed but managed to get back in the peloton again. The guys were eager to do a good job, and we also saw Matti in the final breakaway. So I think that Tinkoff-Saxo showed today that we’ve come to race”, comments Tristan Hoffman.

In the end and going under the red kite with 1k to go, numerous teams battled for the front. José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) was the first of the fastest to start the sprint with 200 meters to the line and nobody managed to surpass the Spaniard, who won the stage ahead of Tom Boonen (Etixx-Quickstep), Arnaud Démare (FDJ) and Peter Sagan in fourth place.