Lutsenko wins the Tour of Oman

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Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) won his second consecutive Tour of Oman, dominating the race after winning three of the six stages. Second overall was Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida), with third going to Jesus Herrada (Cofidis).

Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) won the final sprint stage on the Matrah Corniche, beating Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Davide Ballerini (Astana). Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) crashed during the stage and was unable to finish.

Lutsenko set up his repeat victory by winning three of the four climbing stages. It was an emotional victory for the Kazakhstani national champion after he revealed his wife suffered a miscarriage in December. 

He moved up to second in overall classification on stage 2, soloing in to win by a few seconds. The Kazakh rider took control the next day, attacking again on the final climb. The win was enough to put him in the race lead by 18 seconds. He then set-up overall victory with a third win on the Green Mountain finish. He led the charge up the climb along with Pozzovivo and Herrada, ultimately dropping his two companions and catching the sole survivor of the day's break group only 100 metres before the finish line

The closing stage of 133.5 km, while mostly flat and suited to the sprinters, featured two short but steep climbs in the middle third, before heading to a fast and furious loop along the bay and a slightly downhill run to the finish line.

Only six kilometres into the stage, Nathan Van Hooydonck (CCC Team) took off for his second break of the race. By 20km, the move had been established, with Stijn Vandenbergh (AG2R La Mondiale), Alexis Guerin (Delko-Marseille Provence) and Adam de Vos (Rally-UHC) having joined him. They built up a gap of nearly three and a half minutes before a determined chase and crosswinds combined to bring the lead down to around two minutes.

The two climbs mid-stage provided no obstacle but a large crash on the second descent brought down, amongst others, second-ranked Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida). He suffered some nasty road rash but was quickly back up and finished in the peloton to retain his podium spot. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Emirates) was worse off and the winner of the first stage, had to abandon after the crash.

The breakaway quartet crossed the finish line for the first time and set off on three laps of the 7.5km closing circuit with a gap of only 45 seconds. Guerin was the first to be dropped on the high-speed run-in as the sprinters’ teams flexed their muscles and upped the speed behind.

The remaining trio managed to take a 25-second gap in to the final 7.5km lap but their efforts were doomed. Direct Energie led the chase and things came back together with four kilometres to go.

Nizzolo opted to go on the left of the road, taking the shortest line to the finish, winning by little with a well-timed bike throw.

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