Tour of Oman: Kristoff strikes on stage three

Image 1 of 15

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) continued his sterling start to the season with victory on stage one of the Tour of Oman. Kristoff edged out stage one victor Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) at the finish by the Al Mussanah Sport City.

It was always going to be a sprint with barely a bump in the road and more than two kilometres of wide straight road for the riders to work with. Kristoff took to the front with over 100 metres to go, charging down the middle of the road with Guardini to his right. The Norwegian didn’t flinch and held off the stage one winner to beat him by a wheel’s length.

“Today was about getting into the best position by having the stronger team and today we showed that we have a really good team for this,” Kristoff said after he thanked each of his teammates at the finish.

“It was a headwind sprint and it was a long one. We were caught at the back with about 5km to go and then we moved to the front. It was great team-work and I was in a perfect condition. I was in the wheel of Van Poppel I think, from Trek. He started off a little bit early in the wind and then I could take the win.”

Kristoff came into the race with three stages of the Tour of Qatar under his belt but found himself wanting on the opening two day’s in Oman. With four victories in two weeks, it is the best start to a season for the Norwegian but after he struggled to stick with the leading group on stage two he believes there is still some work to do before the classics.

"This is something different to the classics. Yesterday I was not there so I think the classics will be really hard but I hope to improve in the climbs in the next months," he said.

Fabian Cancellara finished safely in the group to retain his leader’s jersey for another day, while Patrick Konrad (Bora-Argon 18) keeps hold of his young riders’ jersey as he sits third in the overall classification.

How it happened

A break was quick to form and there was no surprise that Jef Van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) was one of the three to make it. It was the third consecutive day out front for the Belgian who took his teammate Preben Van Hecke with him. Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani CSF) came along for the ride with the two teammates.

There was confusion in the pack, as no team would take up the responsibility for the chase. With the race leader in their team, Trek Factory Racing were expected to do the work but they looked to the sprinters’ teams to contribute to the effort. While the pack failed to work together the three escapees were allowed build an advantage of more than nine minutes. Eventually Trek, assisted by the sprinters’ teams, moved to the front and the lead was trimmed down to a more acceptable gap of six minutes after 60 kilometres of racing.

The temperature continued to go up with the thermometer nudging 40 at one stage but the gusting winds made it somewhat more bearable for the riders. Out front though, the leaders could sense the peloton bearing down on them and with 40 kilometres remaining their advantage was cut to 35 seconds. They were eventually caught with 16 kilometres to go, after Van Meirhaeghe extended his lead in the most aggressive competition.

Astana, Movistar, MTN-Qhubeka and Tinkoff-Saxo all jostled for position as the race moved into the final 10 kilometres, while Etixx-QuickStep suffered a setback when Matteo Trentin crashed and abandoned. Katusha kept their wick dry before finally moving to the front with less than five kilometres to go and delivered Kristoff to his fourth win of the season.

Full Results