Smart teamwork and a strong final sprint saw Swiss National Champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) outpower Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to clinch the fourth edition of the ultra-hilly Muscat Classic on Friday.
A late attack by Yates on the short but punishing Al Jisah climb brought a response from Schmid and his Jayco-AIUa teammate Luke Plapp, and the three-rider breakaway fought it out for the win.
With Plapp leading the trio ahead of Yates into the final kilometre and the much faster Schmid perfectly positioned at the back, Yates led out the sprint for the line.
The Briton was helpless to stop the Swiss racer from blasting past and claiming his first victory of the 2026 season, while Plapp, his job done perfectly, rolled across the line for third.
"Yes, it feels great to race here. I knew the race suited me, and I'm in great shape. I started well in Australia," Schmid later told the national race broadcaster, OmanSportsTV.
"I was super-motivated, and in the end, we planned it exactly like this. We knew I'd need to be in a small group or alone over the final climb, and the team did it perfectly.
"With Luke there, it was very easy to prepare the sprint. We knew if we raced the last climb aggressively, we knew we had it. The last five kilometres, there was quite a gap for the break, so we had time.
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"The Tour of Oman suits Adam well and he was very strong on the climb, but I knew normally in the sprint I'd be a bit faster. But it wasn't easy."
"It went perfect," Plapp said, "we're roommates here and we were talking about this and we said it would be ideal if we went away with Yatesy and Mauro beats him in the sprint."
(Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
Given that there were no less than six categorised climbs all packed into the finale of Oman's one-day Classic, on a very hot day, it was always likely that only the bravest of souls would attempt anything like a long-distance break, and only France's Baptiste Veistroffer proved to be up to the challenge.
The Lotto-Intermarché rider made it to the first and longest of the six, the 3.8-kilometre Al Jabal Road, with a five-minute advantage. He then continued to maintain his lead as he ploughed over the Hamriyah and then the Al Jissah – the latter for the first time of two.
The climbs were piling up, however, and as he crowned the Wadi Al Kabir and Hamriyah, his advantage was shrinking, largely thanks to XDS-Astana's Alberto Bettiol and a combination of hard work by Tudor and Soudal-QuickStep.
Finally reeled in with 23 kilometres to go, Lotto-Intermarché also put their shoulder to the collective wheel, meaning that by the time they hit the foot of the Al Jisah climb, there were fewer than 30 riders remaining.
Britain's Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla), who'd already shown his aptitude for short, punchy climbs after he won the Tour of Guangxi on just such an ascent last year, opened up hostilities and lined out the much-reduced peloton, but Yates was ready and waiting to storm past.
So, too, were Jayco duo Schmid and Plapp, and as they crowned Al Jisah with around 20 seconds advantage on their closest chasers then moved swiftly onto the very fast, well-surfaced descent that followed, suddenly the race came down to just three riders ahead.
Knowing that Schmid was fastest, the two Jayco racers cleverly opted to keep things together and Yates under control rather than go from distance and coming into the final kilometres, Yates' already difficult position was steadily growing harder.
The British all-rounder did his best to surprise the two with an early jump, but it was virtually impossible given Schmid's faster turn of speed and in the last 50 metres, Yates threw in the towel, allowing the Swiss racer to slow and celebrate in style as he reached the line.
"It was a good fight there in the final," Yates – double defending champion in the fast upcoming Tour of Oman, which starts Saturday – confirmed to Oman TV. "But with two guys from Jayco, it was always going to be tricky, and I'm happy to start the week like this."
"I went quite fast on the climb, maybe a bit too early, but it's not so long, and I needed to make a difference somewhere. The two guys managed to hang on, but in the sprint I was never going to be the fastest there. But these are good signs for next week."
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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