Colombia’s Sebastián Molano sprinted to victory on the opening stage of the Tour of Oman, giving UAE Team Emirates-XRG their seventh win of the season on the first weekend of February.
In a wide, spread out sprint finish, Molano emerged fastest, beating Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) to the line, whilst Gerben Thijssen swept up third, after Alpecin-Premier Tech delivered arguably the best lead-out but not the best finish.
Set on wide, straight roads, the sprint went off without incident – aside from a brief moment where two animals ran across the road.
How it unfolded
Starting at the Ministry of Tourism and going straight into the steep, 3km climb of Jabal Road, it didn’t take long for a breakaway to get away on stage 1 of the Tour of Oman. Within 6km, two riders had got away – José Luis Faura (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Patryk Goszczurny (Visma-Lease a Bike) – and were building a gap. They were soon joined by Alex Díaz (Caja Rural-Segoros RGA) and with the climbing done, this trio built a lead of two and a half minutes.
With no other obstacles or challenges on the largely flat opening day, the middle of the 170km stage was mostly uneventful, with the leaders holding their lead as the peloton kept them within catching distance but not too close for a good 100km. UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Alpecin-Premier Tech were mainly doing the work to control the gap and set the pace in the bunch.
With 50km to go, the break’s lead was still two minutes, but was starting to come down rapidly as the race entered its pan-flat finale. With 40km to go, the gap had been halved to under a minute.
Entering the final 25km, the leaders started attacking each other, but it was clear that their time was short with the…
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