(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Overnight leader Azzedine Lagab yesterday retained his position at the Tour of Zubarah where defending champion Yusif Mirza of the UAE produced a late burst to win stage two.
Lagab finished stage two in fourth spot to keep his title hopes alive on a day when the riders completed a gruelling 116.8kms stage in Madinat Al Shamal.
Mirza who rides for Team Giant ended the stage with a time of 2 hours 45 minutes 22 seconds to jump to 11th in the overall general classification.
The 26-year-old UAE rider now owns the white jersey.
Austria's Martin Weiss, who featured at last year's Tour of Zubarah, finished in second spot while David Per of Adria Mobil was placed in third spot.
Lagab ended day three of the four-day event a notch above fifth-placed Mario Schoibl of Austria. Kristjan Fajt of Adria Mobil was sixth while TKT Racing Cycles rider Gabor Kasa stunned with a seventh-place finish.
Nabojsa Jovanovic (TKT), Wauter Sybrandy (SIG) and Primoz Roglic (Adria Mobil) rounded off the top-10 riders in stage two.
Lagab (5:35.51) now enjoys a 19-second lead over second-placed Fajt. Weiss, who finished second at last year's Tour of Zubarah, is in third place, 30 seconds adrift of Lagab.
Per (32 seconds adrift) is in fourth spot while Schoibl (34 seconds) is in sixth spot.
Sybrandy (43 seconds), Roman Van Uden (1:47), Radoslav Rogina (2:00), Abdennour Yahmi (2:01) and Mirza (2:03) complete the top-10 riders in the general classification.
Qatar's Abdelrahman Jarboua was 21st fastest yesterday finishing 1:17 slower than Mirza.
Jarboua's team-mate Abdullah Afifi was placed 45th, 3:31 adrift of the time set by Mirza.
Abdullah is 34th fastest in the overall general classification (6:52 slower than the time of Lagab (5:35.51).
Today the riders will kick off the proceedings from Lekhwiya Sports Club and end at Zubarah Fort in the north of the country.
The Zubarah Fort, also known as Fort Zubara, is a historic Qatari military fortress built under the oversight of Sheikh Abdullah bin Qassim Al Thani in 1938.
The Zubarah Fort was originally built by Sheikh Abdullah to serve as a coast guard station.
It was later renovated into a museum to display diverse exhibits and artworks for topical archaeological findings.
The event is sponsored by Aspire Zone and Qatar Museums.
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