Former ProTour champion Joaquim Rodriguez is aiming to clock up his first win of the season at the Tour of Oman, with the Katusha rider feeling that one of the stages could suit his attributes.
The Spaniard has his eyes set on Saturday’s 158 kilometre stage from the Royal Opera House in Muscat to the top of Jabal Al Akhdhar, also known as Green Mountain. Last year’s race winner Robert Gesink soloed to victory there and ended up winning the race overall via an unexpected triumph in the time trial.
With no race against the clock this year, there’s a possibility that the stage winner on Saturday will end up on top of the GC on Sunday.
Rodriguez will aim to be first to the line at Green Mountain, then take things from there. “I’m in a good shape, even if maybe not at my best,” he said. “Anyway, it’s also true that many of us are here in order to test our condition, since we don’t know at what level we are: I’m talking about Nibali, Fugslang and many more. Everybody wants to start well this season, and there’s nothing better than a victory to begin with.”
Some of his rivals such as Nibali have already competed strongly, the Italian riding the Tour de San Luis in Argentina last month and finishing fifth there. Fuglsang was fourth in the Trofeo Deia.
The latter event is part of the Challenge Mallorca set of 1.1 races; Rodriguez got his season underway there, but considers the Oman event to be the real start to his season. “In Mallorca I took part in the circuit race and one stage, where I tried a breakaway but I was caught by the main group. So this is my first stage race.”
He finished 41st yesterday, rolling in as part of the main bunch. His team-mate Denis Galimzyanov finished second to Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and will aim to improve on that in the days ahead. “Our team has Galimzyanov for sprints and me for general classification,” said Rodriguez. “It’s not going to be easy, but we have some chances to win.”