Tom Boonen won his fourth career Tour of Qatar on Friday, playing it safe on a scrappy bunch sprint where world champion Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) crashed after touching wheels with another rider just meters before the finish. All Boonen had to do was cross the line with the group to take home the gold leader's jersey for Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team. 

Arnaud Demare (FDJ-BigMat) won Stage 6, while Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha Team) and Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) finished second and third, respectively. Boonen was the team's top finisher at 15th, while Gert Steegmans placed 18th.

Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team worked hard early on in the race to try and bring a seven rider break back. Speeds reached upwards of 55km per hour at one point. Matt Brammeier was spotted at the front of the peloton for the final 14 km as a seven man breakaway was brought back together. He took several hard pulls at the front of a very fast paced peloton.

Tom Boonen may have been boxed in within the final 1.3 km of Tour of Qatar Stage 5, but he easily defended his gold leader's jersey in a bunch sprint finish on Thursday. He finished close enough to the front where he considered going for the stage victory.

Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team worked hard for the entire 160km race, in which two riders escaped but were pulled back within the final 15-20km. However, as the final kilometers approached, chaos erupted in the peloton. Riders were spread out across the road, leadout trains fought for position, and Boonen and his leadout Gert Steegmans calmly held their ground.

Unfortunately, the narrow roundabout prevented Boonen from moving up close enough to contest an eventual winning sprint by world champion Mark Cavendish (Team Sky).

Tom Boonen will take the gold leader's jersey into stage 3 of Tour of Qatar by three hundredths of a second, as Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team finished second to Garmin-Barricuda by seven seconds in the stage 2, 11.3 km team time trial on Tuesday.

Boonen was seen taking lengthy pulls at the front, and threw his bike over the line. That bike throw very well could have kept him in the general classification (GC) lead.