The Tour of Oman is officially back on the UCI race calendar, with teams already planning for the six-day race between February 10-15.
Reports and rumours of the return of the Middle Eastern race have been circulating for a while and organiser ASO have now revealed the race route and the team invited.
The Jabal Al Akhdhar Green Mountain finish is again expected to be decisive, with seven WorldTour teams amongst the 18 squads travelling to the Persian Gulf for some warm-weather racing.
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The WorldTour teams are QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, Team BikeExchange-Jayco, Groupama-FDJ, Team DSM, UAE Team Emirates and Cofidis. The ProTeams include Gazprom-Rusvelo, Arkea-Samsic, Uno-X Pro and Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB, while a national team from Oman will also be in action.
A number of teams are expected to head to Oman from next week’s Saudi Tour (February 1-5), which is also organised by ASO. Cyclingnews understands that only athletes and team staff who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 can travel to the two races.
The Tour of Oman has secured ProSeries status and so attracted riders and teams from the Tour of Antalya in Turkey. Other riders will be in action at the Tour de la Provence in the south of France.
The Tour of Oman was created in 2010 as an additional race to the Tour of Qatar. Fabian Cancellara won the first edition, while Tour de France winners Christopher Froome and Vincenzo Nibali have won other more mountainous editions of the race. Alexey Lutsenko of Astana won the last two editions in 2018 and 2019.
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This year’s race route is again based on the capital Muscat, where riders will stay for the entire race.
The 891km of racing include three opportunities for the sprinters, while stage 3 to Qurayyat ends with a finish atop a 2.8km climb at 6.5 per cent. The Jabal Al Akhdhar Green Mountain finish comes on stage 5, with the exposed 5.7km, 10.5 per cent showing who is on form and a true overall contender. The final stage ends on the Matrah Corniche, with the usual high-speed sprint expected.
Daniel Ostanek will be at the Tour of Oman for Cyclingnews will have full race coverage, interviews and news.
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
