Cavendish wins 5th stage of Tour of Qatar

AL KHOR, Qatar (AP) - British rider Mark Cavendish won the fifth stage of the Tour of Qatar on Thursday while Tom Boonen closed in on the overall victory.

Cavendish secured his second stage win in three days by taking a mass sprint at the end of a 99-mile ride from a camel race track in the east of the country to Al Khor in the north. The Team Sky rider arrived in Doha with the flu but still beat Liquigas-Cannondale duo Daniel Oss and Peter Sagan to the finish line.

Boonen retained a 31-second lead over Tyler Farrar going into the final stage on Friday. Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha is third, while Cavendish moved up to seventh.