Days after taking his first win of the 2024 season at the Muscat Classic, Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) struck out on stage 2 of the Tour of Oman to take victory on the uphill finish in Qurayyat.
A rare rain-hit day in Oman saw the New Zealander prove the strongest in the dash to the line on the final 3km climb, beating Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) to the finish.
Fisher-Black now takes over the race lead from stage 1 winner Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny). He leads Lamperti by six seconds and Ulissi by eight heading into the stage 3 summit finish at Eastern Mountain.
UAE Team Emirates had set the pace for much of the day, keeping a handle on the three-man break of the day consisting of Oscar Pelegri (Burgos-BH), Nariyuki Masuda (JCL Team Ukyo), Tegsh-bayar Batsaikhan (Roojai Insurance).
The trio got away from the peloton within the opening 25km of the hilly 170.4km stage and lasted out front for most of the day, attaining a maximum gap of five minutes before they were reeled in 6.5km from the finish.
A rare blast of rain – the first to hit the Tour of Oman since the race began in 2010 – and wind affected proceedings in the run to the final, knocking out TV transmission for the decisive final climb.
With the break caught, the full peloton hit that ascent to Qurayyat (2.7km at 6.7%), where Fisher-Black had the strongest kick in the legs in the final metres to put distance between him and his competitors and take the third win of his young career.
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“I’m super happy with today. It was a lot of different scenarios we had to go through, especially with the beginning. It was a difficult start before the break formation, and then it was relaxed for a bit and then the rain came and was super difficult to just keep everything organized,” Fisher-Black said.
“Everyone was just stressed in the peloton and to come to the final in a good position was really difficult. But we managed to make it work with the whole team. So I’m really happy with the team today and how we rode.”
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor before being hired full-time. Her favourite races include the Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France Femmes, Tro-Bro Léon, and cycling's fourth Grand Tour, the Volta a Portugal.
