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Summary British rider Mark Cavendish won fifth stage of Tour of Qatar on Thursday.
Tom Boonen closed in on the overall victory by protecting his lead on the penultimate day.Cavendish secured his second stage win in three days by taking a mass sprint at the end of a 160-kilometer 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 a bout of 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 Fridays final stage. Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha is third, while Cavendish moved up to seventh.--AP
