Boonen won a sprint finish on Wednesday night to see off Dutchman Tom Veelers and Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara.

On a day when the field blitzed through the flat terrain of the Middle East and averaged just under 50km per hour, Mark Renshaw battled and finished 19th for the day, though he did jump three spots to 15th overall.

For the first time in the race, the Bathurst sprinter wasn’t part of the dash to the line after the main group splintered as they got inside the final 30km of the stage.

One bunch – which contained Boonen, among others – put the hammer down at that point and strong winds helped cause havoc at the front of the field.

Renshaw was part of the second group initially, which then itself fractured to some degree before reforming in the final 10km.

By that point, though, there was no chance of pulling back the Boonen group after they had pulled the gap out to over a minute.

Multiple world time trial champion Cancellara drove the leaders in a withering burst entering the final few kilometres and their final margin of victory was 54 seconds, a huge advantage in the context of such a flat race where time gaps are hard to come by.

Boonen was never going to be chall-enged for the stage given that none of the other riders in the leading group were recognised sprinters.

He now boasts a 31-second lead on American Tyler Farrar in the overall classification, and provided the Belgian doesn’t strike difficulty and allow Farrar into a breakaway group on the final two stages, he should claim his fourth Tour win.

“The wind, again, was a little bit different to what we are used to,” a delighted Boonen said.

“It was mainly head and tail winds, but there were a few sections with a cross wind, and that’s what split the pack. We were the team, together with Garmin, who was really pushing to stay in front and today we got rewarded for our hard work.

“I think that after today we are in a much more comfortable position to secure the overall victory and it has been a crucial day.”

The fifth and penultimate stage held overnight was a 160km ride from Camel Race Track to Al Khor.