Tour of Oman stage 4: Nibali wins on Green Mountain

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Four years on from his triumph on Green Mountain in the 2012 Tour of Oman, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) repeated the feat on the extended version of the climb on stage 4 of the 2016 race.

The Italian was part of a select group that chased down early attacker Eduardo Sepulveda (Fortuneo Vital Concept) and sparred on the 1.8km section that had been added on to the point where the stage had finished in previous years.

Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) made a move on the double-digit gradients with about 3km to go but Nibali caught and passed the Frenchman, moving clear with the finishing line in sight. The Italian’s teammate Jakob Fuglsang came home for third several seconds later, while Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) emulated some of his exploits at last year’s Vuelta a España, digging deep to finish fourth just behind the Dane.

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Nibali’s victory, his first of the season, sees him take over the race lead from Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), who was never expected to keep hold of the red jersey but nevertheless battled to 10th place on the stage – 1:10 behind the Italian but ahead of climbers Sepulveda and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale).

Nibali’s lead is a slim one, with Bardet poised just 15 seconds back, while Fuglsang is third at 24 seconds. Dumoulin is fourth at 40 seconds and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) is a further 14 seconds back in fifth, as he was on the stage. The tight GC situation could make for some exciting racing on the penultimate stage, which features a triple ascent of the Bousher Al Amerat climb before a speedy run down to the line. 

How it happened

The 177-kilometre stage, which started out at the Knowledge Oasis in Muscat, was all about the mountain that would rear up in the final kilometres.

That wasn’t going to stop Kenny Dehaes trying to get in the breakaway for a fourth successive day, but despite attacking early, the Belgian failed to get away. The break of the day was instead formed when Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) and Daniel Oss (BMC) sprang clear after around 10km and a group of eight gathered to bridge over.

They were: Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Argon 18), in his third break of the race, the Wanty-Groupe Gobert duo of Robin Stenuit and Simone Antonini, Iljo Keisse (Etixx-QuickStep), Berden De Vries (Roompot Oranje Peloton), Stijn Steels (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare) and Michael Reihs (Stöltin Service Group).

The road rose gently in the first portion of the race and the group of 10 carved out an advantage of four minutes. That’s the way it would stay for most of the day, with the peloton keeping things steadily ticking over, safe in the knowledge that any gap the escape had at the foot of Green Mountain would soon evaporate.

Steels took the first intermediate sprint just before the halfway mark, and Antonini grabbed the second in the run-up to Green Mountain. By that stage, though, the peloton was gaining ground, and though the escapees hit the climb alone, they did so with an advantage of just over a minute.

Time, then, for the overall contenders to show their colours on the double-digit gradients. Sepulveda, who impressed last month with a summit finish victory at the Tour de San Luis, made the first decisive attack and spent some time out front. A group of overall favourites tracked him down, and it was Bardet who then attacked with 3km remaining.

Nibali chased down the Frenchman and moved clear in the final kilometre to open up a several-second gap by the line. They were originally given the same time in the results but when the full version was issued, that changed to a nine-second gap. 

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