The years may go by but this Wednesday the Tour of Oman once again faces another final showdown on the Jabal Al Akhdhar climb, although race leader Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) remains quietly confident of his chances on Oman’s toughest summit finish.
To say the Jabal Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain) and its never-ending succession of sharp, hairpin bends traditionally prove decisive in the Tour of Oman is an understatement.
In seven of the 10 previous ascents, the winner on Jabal Al Akhdhar has also captured the final overall victory. And even when the mountain top finish did not feature as the last stage of the Tour of Oman program like this year, the race leader atop the smooth but relentlessly steep six-kilometre climb, peaking out at 1,220 metres above sea level, and averaging 10.5% gradient has invariably claimed the outright GC win.
On paper the race remains relatively open, as 23 riders stand at less than a minute behind Jorgenson, with stage 4 winner Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) a scant five seconds adrift. And it is possible that even if the Jabal Al Akhdhar, deep in the Al Hajar mountain range, is the only classified climb on Wednesday’s short 152-kilometre run, Jabal Al Akhdhar is such a tough test it could yet blow the Oman GC apart.
Jorgenson remains quietly confident of his chances though, and his domination of Oman so far can’t be questioned. Having dropped all the other favourites when he won the toughest summit finish to date on stage 3, his morale surely gained a further boost when he successfully quashed a late ambush attack by former double winner Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) on stage 4.
“Winning overall is definitely the dream,” Jorgenson told reporters after catching his breath at the finish. “I think we can do it, everything went perfect today [Tuesday] and that was the one last obstacle before the final day. And then tomorrow, it’ll all come down to that last climb, being as fresh as I can for it, and then putting in the performance of my life.”
Jorgenson said earlier this week that longer climbs than the one he won on stage 3 at Jabal Al Hutt tend to suit him better. But with his first-ever leader’s jersey at pro level on his bike, the stakes and the pressure will be higher than ever, too.
“It’s going to be super-steep and it’ll be hot for sure like every day here,” Jorgenson said when asked to analyse Wednesday’s ascent, which he has never raced up before. “It’s just a watts-per-kilo test,…
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