Already having four wins to his credit this season, Andre Greipel took more scalps when he triumphed on stage one of the Tour of Oman. The Lotto Belisol rider delivered a perfect sprint to out-muscle Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda), Marcel Kittel (1t4i) and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), as well as the rest of the main field.
World champion and Greipel’s big rival Mark Cavendish (Sky Procycling) finished further back, with the Briton nearly coming down towards the end of the race into Wadi Al Huwqayn. “Not the best of days today. Ran off the road by Alexander Kristoff with 1200m to go. Shit happens,” he said on Twitter, before congratulating Greipel.
The latter’s triumph adds to his season-opening success in the Down Under Classic plus three stages in the Santos Tour Down Under. He had intended competing in Qatar but was ill just before his team was due to leave and decided then to concentrate on Oman rather than both races.
Today’s 159 kilometre stage ran from Al Alam Palace to Wadi Al Huwqayn. The mainly flat race saw an early attack by Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team), Pengda Jiao (Champion System), Alexandre Lemair and long distance break specialist Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha).
They quickly opened up a gap of almost five minutes and while the Garmin Barracuda team chased, still had over three minutes at the first intermediate sprint at Barka, 74 kilometres after the start at the Al Alam Royal Palace. Lemair was quickest there ahead of Wyss.
The peloton continued to aim for a bunch gallop and at the second intermediate sprint at As Suwayq (km 128.5), taken by Ignatiev, it was falling fast. The Russian clipped clear and with 25 kilometres to go, held a 55 second lead. This dropped to 20 seconds with 15 kilometres remaining, and he was finally reeled in inside the final seven kilometres.
Greipel and the other sprinters jostled for position, with Cavendish losing out in the battle. Once the finish came into view, the big German hit the accelerator and powered home to take his fifth success of the year.
More later….