2015 Tour of Qatar

2015 Tour of Qatar

UCI Asia Tour
Niki Terpstra, the winner of the 2015 Tour of Qatar
Race details
Dates	8–13 February 2015
Stages	6
Distance	784.4 km (487.4 mi)
Winning time	17h 36' 48"
Results
Winner  Niki Terpstra (NED) (Etixx–Quick-Step)   Second  Maciej Bodnar (POL) (Tinkoff–Saxo)   Third  Alexander Kristoff (NOR) (Team Katusha) Points  Alexander Kristoff (NOR) (Team Katusha) Youth  Peter Sagan (SVK) (Tinkoff–Saxo)   Team Etixx–Quick-Step
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The 2015 Tour of Qatar was the 14th edition of the Tour of Qatar cycling stage race. It was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour de France. The race was rated as a 2.HC event, the second highest rating an event can receive, and was part of the 2015 UCI Asia Tour.

The 2015 race consisted of six stages. It started in Dukhan on 8 February 2015 and finished on 13 February in Doha, the capital city of Qatar. The Tour of Qatar puts unusual demands on riders: it has no significant climbs, but almost every stage is affected by strong crosswinds. These conditions make the race ideal preparation for the spring classics season, so many prominent classics riders were present. The flat stages, suitable for sprinters, and individual time trial meant that specialists in these disciplines also chose to ride in Qatar.

The race was won by Dutch rider Niki Terpstra of Etixx–Quick-Step. It was the second successive year that Terpstra won the race after his victory in 2014; it was the fourth successive victory for Etixx–Quick-Step and eighth overall in Qatar. Terpstra took the lead of the race with victory in the third stage of the race, the individual time trial, and held the lead of the race to the finish. Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff–Saxo) took second place, six seconds behind Terpstra; Alexander Kristoff won stages 2, 4 and 5 on the way to finishing third, nine seconds off the overall lead.

In the race's other classifications, Kristoff won the silver jersey of the points classification, thanks to his three stage wins. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff–Saxo) was the winner of the pearl white jersey of the young rider classification as he was the highest placed rider born after 1 January 1990. The team classification was won by Etixx–Quick-Step.