Mark Cavendish claimed his first win of the season and the early overall lead of the Tour of Qatar by sprinting to victory on stage one at the Al Khor Corniche.
The Dimension Data rider formed part of a 21-man lead group when the peloton split apart early in the race and reaped the benefits by beating Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) into second place and Andrea Guardini (Astana) into third.
Cavendish received 10 bonus seconds for his win, as well as five more at earlier intermediate sprints, so he now leads second-placed Modolo by eight seconds and third-placed Guardini by 11 seconds at the top of the general classification.
The five-day race continues on Tuesday with a flat, 135km second stage starting and finishing in Doha
