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Boonen claims third successive win

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DOHA, Qatar -- Former world champion Tom Boonen dominated Australian Graeme Brown in a bunch sprint to win an explosive fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar.

Quick Step rider Boonen picked up his third individual stage win in as many days after a mainly flat 139km of racing between the Camelodrome and the Gulf of Doha.

Brazilian Brazilian Murilo Fischer finished third behind Rabobank rider Brown, who on Monday was accused of causing mayhem in the bunch sprint during which Tom Steels crashed and was left with a broken collarbone.

Boonen takes a 27-second lead over team-mate Steven De Jongh into Thursday's penultimate stage, a 160.5km run between Al Zubarah and Mesaaied which is the longest of the race.

However, he is unlikely to be challenged in the overall by Italian sprint rival Alessandro Petacchi, who began the day trailing by less than 20 seconds but finished it over five minutes in arrears.

The race was on after just a few hundred meters when the T-Mobile and Rabobank teams contrived to blow the stage apart.

Their tactic worked, but ultimately left Boonen on the podium after 30 leaders left Petacchi and the rest of the bunch in their wake.

Aided by a strong tailwind, the leaders completed nearly 59km in the first hour and went on to build a virtually unassailable lead.

Boonen was attacked by a few of his more fearful rivals in the closing kilometers, but the Belgian brought them all back to heel on his own before dominating Brown at the finish line.

"I really enjoyed myself today," said Boonen, who now has 13 victories in four years of racing at the Tour of Qatar.

"The hardest thing was to try and counter the attacks in the final three kilometers. They were going off all over the place, but I never panicked."

On Sunday, his team won the opening stage, a team time trial, meaning Quick Step have dominated the race so far.

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