Talented young Slovakian Peter Sagan has clocked up the first of what’s likely to be many victories in 2012, with the Liquigas Cannondale rider hitting the line first on day two of the Tour of Oman.
The 2011 Tour of Poland victor was best in the finale of the 140 kilometre race from Sur to Wadi Dayqah Dam, which ended with a tough uphill rise before the line. This saw off fast sprinters such as Mark Cavendish, but Sagan’s greater all round abilities kept him in contention and gave him the platform to hit the line first. He took over the race lead from yesterday’s stage victor Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol).
Baden Cooke (GreenEdge) took his own best result thus far this season, netting second place.
The mainly flat stage was marked by a four man break which went clear just after the ten kilometre point. Present were two BMC Racing Team riders, namely Martin Kohler and Klaas Lodewijk, David Boucher (FDJ-BigMat) and Diego Caccia (Farnese Vini – Selle Italia).
The quartet quickly build a good lead and had three and a half minutes after 22 kilometres. The same gap was in place nine kilometres later when Lodewijk took the first of the day’s two intermediate sprints, but dropped slightly to three minutes after the first hour of racing.
The break’s advantage remained consistent for quite some time after that point, being three minutes and ten seconds after seventy kilometres. It was down to two minutes 45 seconds by the second intermediate sprint, 103.5 kilometres after the start and 37 from the line, where Lodewijck beat Caccia for the prime.
The peloton ramped up the pace soon afterwards, with Lotto Bellisol and Garmin Barracuda doing much of the driving. With twenty kilometres to go the leaders still had two and a half minutes, but this fell more rapidly as the stage profile became more demanding near the line.
The quartet were one minute 20 seconds ahead with ten kilometres to go, then rapidly lost time. Lodewijk was dropped with five kilometres remaining, and the others were gobbled up soon afterwards. Many in the bunch also suffered on the final climb, the peloton fragmenting, while Liquigas guided Sagan into the right position prior to his explosive surge for the line and his first victory of 2012.
More to follow…