André Greipel picks up second win in Tour of Oman

André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) gave a further demonstration of his stunning early-season form with victory on stage four of the Tour of Oman to Al Wadi Al Kabir. The German outsprinted Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) to extend his lead in the general classification to six seconds.

While Greipel’s assured winning sprint was impressive in itself, his victory was all the more remarkable considering that he had been dropped on the last lap of the finishing circuit after the pace ratcheted upwards on its main climb.

An acceleration from Sagan and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) sent ripples through the peloton, and Greipel was among those deposited out the back. In spite of the pace up front, however, he was coaxed back into contention thanks in no small part to the efforts of teammates Adam Hansen and Marcel Sieberg.

“It didn’t look like I was dropping out [on the climb], I was dropped,” Greipel confirmed after the finish. “Adam Hansen and Sieberg were waiting for me, and they kept talking to me, saying that I could do it. Adam Hansen brought me back to the front group, and then they pulled the breakaway back and I just tried to find my position for the sprint.”

After Sagan and Chavanel had been reeled back in, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) launched an attack of his own out of the reduced peloton, but he was unable to get sufficient traction to stay clear. The RadioShack-Nissan team of Fabian Cancellara was also active throughout the day, although the Swiss rider explained that the finale was not quite difficult enough to eliminate all of the fast men. “If there was a chance, we might have tried something with me but the course wasn’t really selective enough,” he said.

In the final sprint, it initially looked as though Peter Sagan would retake the red jersey after he purposefully emerged from the pack with 200 metres to go on the long, wide finishing straight. He may well have paid a price for his rally with Chavanel, however, and when Greipel swooped past the Slovak was unable to respond. “I hadn’t realised Greipel had stayed with the first group,” a disappointed Sagan admitted afterwards.

There was further evidence of a renaissance of French sprinting with the youngsters Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan) and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat) taking third and fourth on the day, just ahead of CJ Sutton (Sky), but all were powerless to prevent Greipel’s march up the shallow rise to the line. 

How it unfolded

After lengthy transfers delayed the start of the previous two stages, the peloton got out of Bidbid ahead of schedule on Friday morning under clear blue skies. The pace in the early stages was frantic until Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Klass Lodewijk (BMC) were given a day pass 10km in, and the tempo settled accordingly.

Chugging their way through the spectacular terraced hillsides of the eastern Hajars, Vandenbergh and Lodewijk eked out a sizeable margin in the opening half of the stage. Given the rising temperatures and humidity, the peloton was happy to maintain a steady rhythm until the first real test of the day, the climb of Bousher Alamrat after 58km.

Here, the raw statistics illustrate how rapidly the détente was ended. On the approach to the climb, the two leaders had almost eight minutes in hand on the bunch; by the time they reached the summit, that advantage had been halved to four as RadioShack-Nissan set a fierce pace behind.

After passing the biggest crowds of the race at Ruwi (82km), the two breakaways tackled the steep climb up to Al Hamriya, featuring some slopes in excess of 15%, with the stacked mountainside providing a natural amphitheatre. Liquigas-Cannondale were now forcing the issue behind, and while the peloton did not fragment as much as anticipated, it was a foretaste of what was to come.

Over the summit of the climb came a series of ups and downs along a ridge leading to the finishing circuit near Muscat, and the constant changes in rhythm sucked more of the venom out of the sprinters’ legs. On the climb of Al Jissah with 40km to go, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) launched an attack of his own and hovered up the time bonus for third behind the two escapees. Although he soon relented, it was a clear indication of his ambitions for the general classification.

In spite of the increase in activity behind, the two escapees retained a two-minute lead on the entry to the testing finishing circuit with 26km remaining. With Liquigas and RadioShack-Nissan continuing to do most of the spadework behind, the gap tumbled gently and Vandenbergh made one last bid for glory alone before being swallowed up on the final lap, where Greipel emerged victorious.

In their short histories, the Tours of Qatar and Oman have often provided sound omens for what is to come in the classics. Given that he survived when the likes of Mark Cavendish, Matt Goss and Tyler Farrar were dropped, Greipel must surely figure among the candidates for victory at Milan-San Remo.

“It’s in March,” Greipel said wearily afterwards, and then repeated himself. “It is in March. Of course I want to try to be good but there is one month to go and a couple of races to do.”