Mark Cavendish blasted to his second sprint victory in three days in the Tour of Qatar on Friday.

The British sprinter easily outclassed German rivals Robert Forster and Heinrich Haussler in the dash for the line on the Doha Corniche at the end of stage six.

“Everybody knew that we were going for the sprint because we’d taken control of the race well before the last few kilometres,” Cavendish said afterwards. "With a kilometre to go, suddenly all of the teams swamped together at the front, but my team-mates helped me go clear and get in the right position for the sprint. If I hadn’t had some bad luck in the first few days then I might have been fighting for the general classification.”

“But I’m coming away from here with two stage wins so I can’t really complain. Columbia was the most successful team in the world in 2008 and I just think we have to confirm that again this year.”

Cavendish said his victory on the final stage of Qatar was in honour of Frederiek Nolf, the rider who died tragically on Wednesday night during the Tour of Qatar.

“It’s good to be able to dedicate the win to him, it’s a shame his team wasn’t here and he couldn’t finish the race, but this is for him and his family.”

Team Columbia-Highroad now heads to the other side of the globe for the Tour of California [Feb 15th - 22nd].