Lotto-Belisol’s sprint train is as slick and well-oiled machine as the peloton has seen since the heyday of HTC-Colombia, so it was little surprise to see them come to the fore in the final kilometre of today’s fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar.

Their parts well-rehearsed, their application precise, the red train reached express speed before one by one they peeled off to leave Jurgen Roelandts with Andre Greipel on his wheel. And when Greipel emerged from behind his silver jersey-clad team-mate the end result appeared inevitable: the Gorilla powering away to stage victory.

Except, it didn’t quite work out as planned – the German led out the sprint  and looked to have it in the bag, but the spectators (us included) had not accounted for the resurgent Tom Boonen flying around him on the line.

So what of the Lotto-Belisol train – the unstoppable machine, so impressive in Adelaide last month? Well their lead-out appeared almost faultless, so perhaps we need to face up to a different proposition – simply that they can be beaten. A certain Manx team-mate of Boonen’s, and a certain compatriot of Greipel’s, will no doubt be quite happy to have seen their bubble burst, if only temporarily.

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