Tour of Oman: Greipel sprints to victory on stage 3

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André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) bounced back from the previous day's disappointment to take a resounding victory at the end of stage three of the Tour of Oman in Al Bustan.

Greipel was supported by a strong Lotto-Belisol team, which didn't panic when stage favourite Peter Sagan escaped in a late attack on the climb of Al Jissah. Chris Froome (Team Sky), Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) and Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) were among his companions, but they were shut down inside the final kilometre on the fast descent to the finish.

The German national champion was piloted to the front by his teammates before opening up the power on the rising finish to win by several bike lengths.

A disappointed Sagan (Cannondale) was second, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) came home in third place, with Ben Swift (Team Sky) fourth.

The 10-second stage winner's time bonus was enough to put Greipel back into the race lead, although he seems unlikely to keep it for long, with the climbers expected to move to the fore on Friday and Saturday. Greipel now has five victories to his name this season, more than any other rider.

"Maybe it looked easy but it was hard to stay with Sagan and the group because they tried to make the race hard," Greipel said modestly after pulling on the red leader's again.

"We were lucky that there was a head win on the final climbs. I had to hang on there and was pretty far back but my team brought me back to the front. They decided that they wanted to ride for me, even if the finish was more for Roelandts. In the end I still had two guys to lead me out. It was perfect timing to hit the front."

Greipel admitted he is on form and hungry to win even more in the first part of the season. "There haven't been many yet, I hope there are more to come," he said.

"I have good legs, I'd accept that but I needed the team to set me up. I win but its not about me, it's about the team."

Greipel leads Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge) by eight seconds, with stage two winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) third at 10 seconds. However he knows he will loose the red jersey when the Tour of Oman heads into the serious climbs during Friday's 173km fourth stage.

"It's nice to have a leader's jersey. We got it back today but we will lose it tomorrow," he said.

A roller coaster finale

The 145km stage from the Muscat Bank headquarters to Al Bustan had a largely flat opening but featured a sting in the tail with a series of short, sharp climbs in the finale.

A small break of four riders formed almost as soon as the flag dropped, with Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Martijn Maaskant (UnitedHealthcare) and Kevin Ista (IAM Cycling) slipping up the road. Behind, the pace in the peloton was steady and they covered 37 kilometres in the opening hour of racing.

The sprinters' teams managed the bunch throughout the day, with Howard's Orica-GreenEDGE team sharing much of the burden of chasing. After peaking at three minutes, the gap began to gradually come down and the short but steep (10%) Al Hamriya climb also put a dent in their lead. The climb was narrow, with the peloton lining out after a front wheel puncture caused Hayden Roulston (Trek Factory Racing) to crash. He had plenty of road rash but told Cyclingnews he will continue in the race.

The riders knew the ten kilometres because the roller coaster roads led to the race hotel. As expected, the peloton split as riders accelerated or suffered. Dario Cataldo (Sky) led the pack over the final 1.4km climb of Al Jissah before his teammate and defending Tour of Oman winner Froome decided to join the action.

Froome joined forces with Cancellara, Sagan and Stybar and opened a 50 metre gap but the stiff headwind made it impossible for them to get away.

They were caught in the final kilometre, on a final rise and the Lotto Belisol quickly dragged Greipel to the front for the sprint. He did not let them down, taking his season's total to five victories, in less than a month of early-season racing.

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