Tom Boonen consolidated his lead in the Tour of Qatar by claiming his second stage victory in as many days, edging out Italy's Alessandro Petacchi in stage three on Tuesday.
Petacchi from the Milram team will have a sense of deja-vu after he was on the wrong end of the same result in Monday's second stage into the Qatari capital, Doha.
Belgian sprinter Boonen, a former world champion who rides for the Quick Step team, retains the overall leader's gold jersey and now hold's a 13 second lead over Petacchi as he aims to retain his title.
Austria's Bernard Eisel took third spot.
Boonen was languishing in about 50th place with three kilometers of the 140km stage to go but teammate Matteo Tossato helped him reach the front.
"I then let the Milram team [of Petacchi] do the work before waiting for the right moment to start my sprint," Boonen said.
The day started off at a blistering pace with the 57km covered in the first hour before attacks started in the middle of stage, which then left Ireland's Paul Healion with a lead of more than seven-minutes with 40km to go till the line.
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1. Tom Boonen (Quick Step, Bel) 6hrs, 33mins, 9 secs
2. Alessandro Petacchi (Milram, Ita) at 13secs
3. Steven De Jongh (Quick Step, Ned) at 17secs
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Healion was not able to hang on. A strong headwind did him little favours and the peloton swallowed him up to set up a mass sprint for the line.
Boonen however remained sanguine about his victory over rival Petacchi, who has been injured for much of the last year.
"Petacchi had not sprinted for eights months," said Boonen, who added that he himself was already in great condition.
Wednesday's 139km fourth stage sees the riders start at the Camelodrome with a finish at the Doha golf club.