Caleb Ewan wins stage 1 of the 2024 Tour of Oman(Image credit: A.S.O. / Oman Cycling Association /Thomas Maheux)
The pack rides during the first stage of the Tour of Oman between the Oman Across Ages Museum and the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre in Muscat(Image credit: Getty Images)
Spectators watch from the roadside as the pack rides during the first stage of the Tour of Oman between the Oman Across Ages Museum and the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre in Muscat(Image credit: Getty Images)
Teams dsm-firmenich PostNL and Jayco-AlUla did the pacemaking at the front of the peloton(Image credit: Getty Images)
Caleb Ewan won his first UCI race since rejoining Jayco-AlUla for 2024.(Image credit: Getty Images)
Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla) holds the first leader's red jersey of the race(Image credit: Getty Images)
Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla) came out on top on stage 1 of the Tour of Oman, prevailing in the bunch sprint finish ahead of Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility).
The result is Ewan's first UCI race win since rejoining the Australian team for 2024. He had previously won the Australian Criterium Championship last month.
He hit the front late on in a head-to-head against Kristoff with Coquard on his wheel. However, the Frenchman didn't have the speed or time to get off Ewan's wheel and hit the wind himself on the slightly uphill run to the finish line.
"I've had a few opportunities so far this year and never managed to win, so the pressure was building, but now I'm finally happy to get another win for the year," Ewan said after the finish.
"There was a breakaway at the start and then one of my teammates, he really controlled it well with DSM and then it came back pretty easy in the end. There was quite a lot of wind so we thought maybe there was going to be some crosswinds, but in the end, it was just a headwind most of the day."
"In general, the race was pretty easy, but the hard part of it was probably judging the finish line that was slightly uphill, so you just needed to time the sprint right."
"This was the only sprint of the race, so no more stage opportunities for me, but we have Davide De Pretto here who can do a good GC so we'll be working for him from now on."
After his win, Ewan holds the first leader's red jersey of the race, with Coquard in second place at four seconds. Breakaway rider Oscar Pelegrí (Burgos-BH) lies in third place at five seconds having picked up bonus seconds in the day's intermediate sprints.
The bunch sprint finish always looked likely on the largely flat opening day of the 2024 race, concluding after 181.5km at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was no surprise to see the breakaway caught 12km from the line, with the trio of Munther Al Hsani (Oman), Nur Amirul Fakhruddin Mazuki (Terengganu CT) and Polychronis Tzortzakis (Roojai Insurance) the last men standing from the early move.
Pelegrí and Mohammd Al-Wahibi (Oman) had already been caught from the breakaway, leaving the sprint squads including Jayco-AluLA and DSM-Firmenich PostNL to do the work on the run to the line and set up the finale.
The break were on their way very early in the race, moving clear within the first 5km of the stage and building up a gap of over three minutes on the sprint team-led peloton.
Jayco and DSM were present at the head of the peloton all day, while up front Al-Wahibi had let go of the group after around 60km of racing. Pelegrí was next to drop after the day's second intermediate sprint, another 60km or so later, leaving four men left to try and hold off the peloton.
However, with the sprint teams determined to contest the finish, it was always going to be a hard ask for the remains of the break to stay away. In the end, they lasted until the 12km mark, getting swept up with plenty of time left before the line and leaving the big teams to set up the only sprint finish of the 2024 race.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur. She writes and edits at Cyclingnews as well as running newsletter, social media, and how to watch campaigns.
