Race leader Andre Greipel had to battle hard on today’s lumpy fourth stage of the Tour of Oman but the Lotto Belisol rider was able to use his superb early season form to recover from being distanced and win the stage.
The German was, like many of the other sprinters, in difficulty on the climbs on the finishing circuit of the 142.5 kilometre race to Al Wadi Al Kabir. However he was able to fight back and beat Peter Sagan (Liquigas Cannondale), Tony Gallopin (RadioShack Nissan), Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ BigMat) and Chris Sutton (Sky Procycling) to the line.
The triumph underlines the momentum he has built up since the start of the year, and puts him in the frame for next month’s Milan-Sanremo, his big goal of the early season. Today’s victory was his fifth UCI race win of the year, and followed on from success on stage one of the Oman event plus three stages in the Santos Tour Down Under.
He’s now six seconds clear of Sagan in the general classification, with Bouhanni twelve seconds further back in third. Gallopin is on the same time in fourth and Baden Cooke (GreenEdge) holds fifth.
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Courageous bid for stage success:
With tomorrow promising a big showdown atop Green Mountain, there was a chance that the peloton might give a breakaway a little leeway on today’s lumpy stage.
Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma Quick Step) and Klaas Lodewijck (BMC Racing Team) were thinking along these lines and attacked within the first few kilometers after the start in Bidbid. By kilometre sixteen, the duo had a gap of three minutes 50 seconds. This went up to almost eight minutes after 45 kilometres, then started to dwindle gradually.
Lodewijck was first past the prime line on the climb of Bousher Alamrat, 57.5 kilometres after the start. Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha) was three minutes 50 seconds back, chasing alone, with the peloton a further fifteen seconds back. The slopes acted to fragment the peloton but on the descent there was a regrouping.
By the end of hour two, the leaders had covered a total of 81 kilometres and had a lead of three minutes 35 seconds. Twenty one kilometres later, Lodewijck also took the second climb ahead of Vandenbergh, and the duo crested the summit of Al Jissah one minute 55 up.
The peloton was chasing with increasing speed and with 25 kilometres left, the gap had dropped to just over a minute and a half. Vandenbergh decided that it was time to put the hammer down and dropped his breakaway companion, who was soon caught. The Omega Pharma Quick Step rider’s surge saw his gap increase from eighteen to forty seconds and then up to one minute fifteen.
Behind, sprinters such as Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel and Tyler Farrar were put in trouble by the two climbs on the finishing circuit, but their teams worked well to bring them back.
The fast-twitch fibre competitors were back in trouble again on the same climbs on the final lap, as was Vandenbergh himself. The 2007 Tour of Ireland winner was reeled in soon afterwards.
Greipel also came under pressure and was dropped, while at the front of the race, French champion Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma Quick Step) attacked. He was joined by stage two winner Peter Sagan (Liguigas Cannondale) and Sandy Casar (FDJ BigMat.
They pushed hard to try to stay clear, yet there was a regrouping before the line and Greipel managed to get back. The German seized the opportunity, powering his way to the front and taking his second win in four days.