Theo Bos (Rabobank) won the first stage of this year’s Tour of Oman between Al Sawadi and Al Seeb in a bunch sprint. The former track World champion beat Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) into second place and Roger Kluge (Skil-Shimano) into third at the end of the flat 158km stage.
"It was a little less hectic than in Qatar,” said Bos after the stage, “but I got to the last 5km with the team keeping me well up front. Graeme Brown led me into the last kilometre perfectly."
Although he was near the front at this point though, Bos was still boxed in, but on the windy finishing straight this actually worked to his advantage.
"There were some riders who made one last attempt at the finish,” he explained, “but because I was out of the wind I could start the sprint really hard. It was a beautiful stage for me, a flat, fast course. This gives me a really good feeling! "
An early attempt to get away was made by Filippo Pozatto (Katusha), but the stage long break came soon afterwards from Tanel Kangert (Astana), Pieter Serry (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Mark McNally (An Post-Sean Kelly).
The maximum lead for the three leaders came just after the 50km, when the gap reached 4’40”. By the time they reached the feedzone, 72km into the stage though, it had been reduced to just over 4 minutes with the Leopard Trek team of 2010 race winner Fabian Cancellara in control of the peloton.
In the second half of the stage, with the coming off the Oman Sea, the peloton steadily reeled in the three riders; with 20km to go the gap was down to a minute.
Just as it looked as though the race would end in a sprint from the entire peloton Team Sky came to the front and began to put pressure on. The increase in pace in the coastal crosswinds managed to split the peloton; the three breakaway riders were reeled in with just a few kilometres to go.
Although the pressure from Sky left a number of riders behind Bos and Cavendish were still present and on the slightly uphill finishing straight the Dutchman overpowered the Manxman to take his first win of the season.
Despite his defeat by Bos on the line, second place was the best result of the season so far for Cavendish, who has suffered from crashes in both the Santos Tour Down Under and the Tour of Qatar.
The 10-second time bonus on the line gives Bos the lead in the overall classification.
Result stage 1
1. Theo Bos (Ned) Rabobank
2. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Highroad
3. Roger Kluge (Ger) Skil-Shimano
4. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky
5. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Team Katusha
6. Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ
7. Danilo Hondo (Ger) Lampre-ISD
8. Russell Downing (GBr) Team Sky
9. Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Quick Step
10. Mathew Hayman (Aus) Team Sky
Standings after stage 1
1. Theo Bos (Ned) Rabobank
2. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Highroad @ 4s
3. Pieter Serry (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
4. Roger Kluge (Ger) Skil-Shimano @ 6s
5. Mark McNally (GBr) An Post-Sean Kelly Team @ 7s