Tour of Oman: Boasson Hagen wins stage 2 in Quriyat

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Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) took the stage victory and the race lead on the second day of the Tour of Oman on Wednesday, emerging fastest up the short, but steep finishing climb to Quriyat.

The Norwegian opened up a clear gap in the sprint, with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) coming across the line for second, alongside Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) in third.

Race leader Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) was distanced on the final climb and ended up losing almost a minute, meaning that Boasson Hagen now leads overall, with Nibali at four seconds and Van Avermaet at six.

The climb to Quriyat, 2.8 kilometres long with an average gradient of 6.5 per cent, was always going to be tricky for Jungels, but Etixx-QuickStep weren’t expecting Dan Martin to be dropped before it had even been reached. The Irishman lost ground as the peloton split in the run-up to the climb and lost 1:41, severely denting any general classification ambitions he was harbouring.

Richie Porte (BMC) said he wasn’t surprised or perturbed to lose time on the opening stage, and the same happened again today, with the Australian also dropped before the climb and suffering a further deficit of three minutes.

Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polowice), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Romain Bardet (AG2R), and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merdia) all finished in the front group of nine, with Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) just behind, meaning the GC is taking shape ahead of Friday’s crucial test on Green Mountain.

How it happened

After some early skirmishes in the opening kilometres, a group of six went clear to form the break of the day. Kenny Dehaes (Wanty Groupe Gobert) and Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Argon 18), not put off by their efforts in the escape on the previous day, were joined by Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), Jesper Asselman (Roompot), Stijn Steels (Topsport Vlaanderen Baloise), and Alexander Kamp (Stöltin Service Group).

They opened up a lead of about three minutes by the time they took on the first climb of the day at Bousher Al Amerat, where Pfingsten took maximum points, followed by Steels and Dehaes.

As the road moved inland, Etixx-QuickStep exerted some control on the peloton, with mostly rolling roads now separating them from the steep final climb in the last couple of kilometres. The leaders had over three minutes by the first intermediate sprint at the halfway stage, where Kamp took the points, but they then started attacking each other.

Asselman attacked, Kamp followed, and after a brief look round, Périchon bridged over, leaving Dehaes, Steels, and Pfingsten to drop back to the bunch.

The leading trio fought on but the peloton steadily ate away at their lead and by 20km to go the game was up. It was at that stage that the road headed downhill and the peloton began to split up, with Martin and Porte among those to lose ground.

CCC set the pace on the flat run-up to the final climb, aiming to tee up former Ardennes specialist Rebellin, with Astana and Dimension taking it up on the final climb. No massive gaps appeared between the big names on the steep gradients, and Boasson Hagen was always going to be the man with the fastest finish, sealing his second win of the season and pulling on his second leader’s jersey after last week’s efforts in Qatar.

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