Greipel sprints to opening Oman victory

André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) picked up where he left off in Australia by thundering to victory in a bunch sprint on the opening day of the Tour of Oman. With an impressive show of force, he made light work of the uphill finishing straight and powered clear of Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) to take a resounding victory.

Already dominant in the sprints at the Tour Down Under in January, Greipel was laid low by illness soon afterwards and forced to miss the Tour of Qatar. No matter, the German scarcely skipped a beat and he was motoring smoothly again at Wadi Al Hoqay on Tuesday. As his dauphin Galimzyanov gasped to Cyclingnews shortly after crossing the line, Greipel simply shot past his rivals “like a car” to claim the win.

The sprinters had clearly been forewarned about the deceptive difficulty of the finale, where the finish banner seemed to hover at the brow of the incline like a mirage, forever out of reach. With a shade over 200 metres to go, Tyler Farrar was the first of the fast men to grasp at it, but his effort would die a slow death as the road continued to stretch inexorably upwards and he had to make do with third.

Galimzyanov was tucked smartly on Farrar’s wheel, and when showed his hand soon afterwards, it briefly looked as though the young Russian might take the spoils. No sooner had he hit the front than his hopes were dashed, however, as Greipel summoned up a ferocious effort to rip clear of the pack and take an emphatic triumph.

The win was Greipel’s fourth of the new campaign, but he was typically understated when he recounted the race to the press in the shadow of the makeshift podium over the other side of the hill. The headlines will be all about Greipel’s raw power in the final metres, but he was at pains to point out that the story of the race was a more complex one than that.

“We hit the front the last 15km to put me in a good position for the end, and we stuck to our plan with 2km to go,” Greipel said. “Adam Hansen went, then Jens Debusschere, Marcel Sieberg, Greg Henderson and me. I felt I was a bit too early in the wind so I let two guys in and then with 200 metres to go I opened my sprint.”

Indeed, Greipel was loathe even to single out his newly-arrived lead out man Greg Henderson for praise above the other carriages of his train, but he did acknowledge the New Zealander is proving to be a canny addition to the Lotto Belisol line-up.

“He brings a lot of experience for the lead-out trains. I can trust him, he’s always there where you can decide a race,” Greipel said. “I come more relaxed to the finish because I just follow him. It takes a big pressure off my shoulder because I don’t need to fight for the position.”

Big names

Greipel’s win was made all the more impressive by the roll call of top sprinters who were left trailing in his wake in the finishing straight. Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i) finished 4th, while Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) appeared to leave his effort too late on a finish that appeared well-suited to his myriad talents. The young Slovak came home in 5th, but will have the chance to do it all again on an even tougher finish at Wadi Dayqah Dam on Wednesday.

While the likes of Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) and Matt Goss (GreenEdge) at least had the satisfaction of being in the mix in the finale, the grand absentee from the finishing sprint was world champion Mark Cavendish, who had taken two sprint wins with disarming facility in Qatar.

His Sky team had been active in chasing down the day’s early break, alongside Lotto Belisol and GreenEdge, but Cavendish was forced to unclip inside the final two kilometres and lost his position towards the head of the bunch. The finger of blame in the Sky camp was directed at Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), and Cavendish was left to cross the line in a frustrated 67th place.

The nature of Tuesday’s route meant that the sprinters would inevitably be given the chance to test their mettle on that inviting finishing straight, but there were still four early escapees willing to test those odds on the road out of Muscat. Shortly after the flag was dropped, the stylish Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) careered off the front, followed by Danilo Wyss (BMC), Pangda Jiao (Champion System) and Alexandre Lemair (Bridgestone).

20km in, they had built up a lead of five minutes, but thereafter it began to melt ineluctably under the unforgiving mid-afternoon sun. When the gap fell to within a minute with 25km to go, Ignatiev decided to try his luck alone, but he too would be swallowed up by the peloton in the finale, where Greipel delivered his pitch perfect sprint.

While Greipel was typically reluctant to shout the odds, the beaten Galimzyanov summed up the situation succinctly: “André is too, too strong. I think in this moment he is stronger than everybody.” His sprint rivals will have their right of reply in the days to come.