Jenthe Biermans (Arkéa-Samsic) was the first winner of the Muscat Classic, sprinting to victory from a heavily reduced bunch.
The all-new one-day prelude to the Tour of Oman featured a series of punchy climbs, the last of which shredded the peloton to barely 40 riders ahead of a frantic dip down to the finish.
The remaining riders bunched up for the slightly uphill sprint, where Biermans powered through to take a convincing win - the first of his career and the first of the season for his new team, Arkéa-Samsic.
Latest Videos From
Jordi Warlop, who rides for Soudal-QuickStep's development squad but earned a late call-up due to the absence of James Knox through illness, rivalled the Belgian on the right but settled for second place. The final spot on the podium went to Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën).
The pure sprinters like Mark Cavendish, who was making his debut for Astana Qazaqstan, and Tim Merlier, making his own debut for Soudal-QuickStep, were ridden out of contention on the late climb.
"It's amazing. It's my first pro victory and it means a lot to me," Biermans said.
"It's the third time I've come to Oman, I've always liked it but never had good legs here. Today I had amazing legs. We had two tactics - for me to survive the climb and sprint, or for Cristian Rodriguez to follow the climbers. In the end, I survived and I'm so happy."
The 173.7-kilometre race started off on the western fringes of Muscat before heading to the hills east of the Omani capital to finish in Al Bustan, borrowing a finale that has been used previously in the Tour of Oman.
After a flat opening 80km, in which Manabu Ishibashi (JCL Team UKYO) embarked on a solo breakaway and carved out a whopping 17-minute lead, the terrain became increasingly hilly with six categorised climbs.
The riders had a first taste of the decisive final climb of Al Jissah climb - and the descent towards the finish - with 50km to go, at which point Ishibashi's lead was tumbling irredeemably.
The peloton started to fragment for the first time as the pace was upped on the second ascent of Hamriyah climb (900m at 10.1%) with 25km to go, but it all came together for Al Jissah (1.1km at 10%).
Bora-Hansgrohe and Soudal-QuickStep were particularly active, and soon the steep gradients saw many riders losing contact. Bora-Hansgrohe especially looked to light things up, sending riders on the attack in repeated blows. Nothing really stuck, but by the summit there were fewer than 40 riders left, all scattered across the road.
The disorganisation continued on the fast descent before the things bunched back up in anticipation for the finish. Astana came through with two riders but soon faded, leaving Biermans to power through the middle of the road to claim the first win of his career.
Results powered by FirstCycling
