Green Mountain stands between Matteo Jorgenson and history at Tour of Oman

The years may go by but this Wednesday the Tour of Oman once again faces another final showdown on the Jabal Al Akhdhar climb, although race leader Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) remains quietly confident of his chances on Oman’s toughest summit finish.

To say the Jabal Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain) and its never-ending succession of sharp, hairpin bends traditionally prove decisive in the Tour of Oman is an understatement. 

In seven of the 10 previous ascents, the winner on Jabal Al Akhdhar has also captured the final overall victory. And even when the mountain top finish did not feature as the last stage of the Tour of Oman program like this year, the race leader atop the smooth but relentlessly steep six-kilometre climb, peaking out at 1,220 metres above sea level, and averaging 10.5% gradient has invariably claimed the outright GC win.

On paper the race remains relatively open, as 23 riders stand at less than a minute behind Jorgenson, with stage 4 winner Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) a scant five seconds adrift. And it is possible that even if the Jabal Al Akhdhar, deep in the Al Hajar mountain range, is the only classified climb on Wednesday’s short 152-kilometre run, Jabal Al Akhdhar is such a tough test it could yet blow the Oman GC apart.

Jorgenson remains quietly confident of his chances though, and his domination of Oman so far can't be questioned. Having dropped all the other favourites when he won the toughest summit finish to date on stage 3, his morale surely gained a further boost when he successfully quashed a late ambush attack by former double winner Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) on stage 4.

“Winning overall is definitely the dream,” Jorgenson told reporters after catching his breath at the finish. “I think we can do it, everything went perfect today [Tuesday] and that was the one last obstacle before the final day. And then tomorrow, it’ll all come down to that last climb, being as fresh as I can for it, and then putting in the performance of my life.”

Jorgenson said earlier this week that longer climbs than the one he won on stage 3 at Jabal Al Hutt tend to suit him better. But with his first-ever leader’s jersey at pro level on his bike, the stakes and the pressure will be higher than ever, too.

“It’s going to be super-steep and it’ll be hot for sure like every day here,” Jorgenson said when asked to analyse Wednesday’s ascent, which he has never raced up before. “It’s just a watts-per-kilo test, nothing more to it rather than tactics, because a climb as tough as that there’s not so much drafting you can do. It’s whoever has the best legs wins the race.”

The second-last round

As for stage 4’s 204km trek and fast, fraught finale in the Yitti hills resort just south of Muscat, Jorgenson said that he had felt the tension at times.

“It took a long time for the break to go and everyone was coming after us,” he said. “But once we got the situation sorted, I think we did a good job. There was a small break went to soak up the time bonuses and the teams that wanted the stage pulled at the end.

“So it finally worked out perfect, couldn’t have gone better. But it was stressful at moments at the beginning.”

Ambushes prior to the final ascent of Jabal Al Akhdhar are unusual in Oman history, but certainly can’t be ruled out on Wednesday. That said, the way Jorgenson stomped out the one fire lit by a GC rival, Lutsenko, on stage 4 when the Kazakh attempted a surprise, late move strongly suggests that his rivals will have a tough job catching the American napping prior to the Green Mountain showdown.

“That was Lutsenko, oh my God, he really went for it. I think I set all sorts of records on that climb today,” Jorgenson said with a wry grin when asked if it had been the Astana racer or another GC challenger, Lotto-Dstny's Maxim Van Gils, who had lit the fuse on the attack.

“I have lactate in every part of my body. But yeah, once we got him back and I got things sorted and had my teammates with me, it became really easy for the end so I’m happy about that.”

He said he had no idea why Lutsenko had attacked where he did, “definitely not, it surprised me a little bit, I didn’t know what his plan was, if he wanted to go solo because it was a long way to the finish. I covered him just in case but it cost me a little bit. But I did, and then waited for my teammates to come back and that was it.”

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With stage 4 done and dusted, the race has boiled down to Wednesday’s final stage, the ascent of the Jebel Al Akhdhar, and the final test of climbing truth. Jorgenson said that he plans to spend Tuesday evening watching videos of previous ascents on the climb, which zig-zags its way across an arid limestone ‘moonscape’ to the finish with no resting spaces at all. (The rainfall and vegetation that permits agriculture on its higher slopes and which gives Jabal Al Akhdhar its name is all to be found much higher up the 3,000 metre-high mountain). 

Prior to watching previous battles of Green Mountain, Jorgenson said he has already seen some data from previous years from the top 10 racers and can perhaps take some inspiration from at least one previous top American performance there too. 

“I think [compatriot and former rider] Tejay Van Garderen was up there, I saw that,” he said with a smile, referring to the rides Van Garderen put in on Jabal Al Akhdhar when heading for second overall in Oman in 2014 and 2015. 

“There have been some fast times, it’ll be interesting to see how things stack up and hope I just do a good performance.”

And if, as he says, his ascent of Jabal Al Akhdhar proves to be good enough, then maybe Jorgenson can go one better than Van Garderen, and the USA’s first-ever outright victory in Oman will be Jorgenson’s for the taking.