Nibali back to winning ways in Oman

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Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) took his first win in almost seventeen months after punching his way clear at the foot of the climb to Jabal Al Akhdhar on stage 5 of the Tour of Oman.

On the sharp slopes of Green Mountain, he succeeded in staving off the dogged pursuit of Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), but the Slovak did manage to limit his losses sufficiently to gain control of the overall lead, one second clear of Nibali.“I didn’t want to look around once on the climb,” Nibali admitted after crossing the finish line.

“A year without wins wasn’t easy to take. My performances in that time show that I was giving it my all, but without a win I couldn’t say I was totally satisfied.”

The haul to Green Mountain was always going to prove decisive, but the real selection was expected to be made on the final 13.5% ramps near the summit. Instead, Nibali threw the cat amongst the pigeons by attacking twice at the foot of the climb.

The first move tested the waters, then the second opened the floodgates. While Velits and the French trio of Sandy Casar, Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ-BigMat) and Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan) treaded water, overnight favourites such as Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan) were among those left floundering.

“I knew that in the middle section of the climb it became a little easier, so I tried like that,” he explained afterwards. “Velits followed me first, and then I went again, this time alone.”

Velits proved to be a resilient chaser, however, and he stalked Nibali all the way up the climb. As the road sneaked its way around the mountainside, he could see Nibali flitting in and out of view all the way, but to his frustration, the gap between them would never diminish, and Nibali crossed the line victorious.

On the final kick to the finish, Velits realised that while the stage victory was beyond him, he might just be able to do enough to deny Nibali the overall lead. “I knew I couldn’t go too early, as I would have lost even more seconds. So I waited as long as possible and then went with 150 metres to go,” he said.

Velits duly reached the finish 12 seconds down on Nibali, and when the time bonuses were tallied, that was sufficient to keep him one second clear ahead of Sunday’s final stage to Matrah Corniche.

A slow start

A block headwind on the road out of Muscat on Saturday morning meant that the peloton was happy to stay together for much of the slow-burning build-up to Green Mountain. Only a brief six-man break headlined by Bernhard Eisel (Sky) and Oscar Gatto (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) broke the calm as the Katusha patrolled the front of the bunch in the service of Rodriguez.

On the 5.7km-long final climb, Nibali was instantly dancing from side to side, looking to land the early blows. His first exploratory jab came almost as soon as the road pitched upwards, and it was a presage of what was to come – the alert Velits was promptly on his wheel, while the rest of the contenders slowly edged their way back towards him.

With 4km to go, Nibali put in his next dig, and only in hindsight did anyone realise that it was in fact the knock-out punch. His steady acceleration took him decisively clear of the hesitant lead group, and sensing his opportunity, he put his head down all the way to the top.

Velits admitted afterwards that he regretted not trying to shut down Nibali’s second attack immediately. “It was not a really hard attack, he just went a little bit faster, but nobody reacted,” he said. “I didn’t react and maybe I underestimated him a little bit, but he got the gap and he held it to the finish.”

Sandy Casar was of a similar opinion, although he was expecting Tom Jelte Slagter (Rabobank) to be more active in the defence of his red jersey chances. “I thought that others like Slagter would go after him first, but in the end he was a bit switched off and went too late,” Casar said afterwards.

The steepest section of the climb came in the final kilometre and a half, but by the time the leaders had reached this section, they were already eking their way up in ones and twos, the constant changes in rhythm making it impossible to form any cohesive chasing groups.

Among those to suffer was Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), who ultimately crossed the line in 7th place, 55 seconds down. Given that his Katusha team had been so active on the front of the peloton early on, it was a disappointing day for the Spaniard.

“I didn’t feel good, I just didn’t have good sensations on the climb, but even so, my rivals weren’t too far ahead,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t expect Nibali to go so early, at the time I thought it was a mistake, but he was the strongest.”

Casar came home third, 25 seconds down, while his young teammate Jeannesson held off the surprising Tony Gallopin for fourth. Gallopin’s efforts were enough to move him up to third overall.

After the finish, Nibali admitted that it would be difficult to overhaul Velits on the final stage, even with two intermediate sprints up for grabs. For his part, the new red jersey knows that he will have to be attentive to ensure he continues Omega Pharma-QuickStep’s run of stage race success this year.

“There are two sprints and my lead is only one second so anything can happen,” Velits warned. “It’s still going to be quite tight, but we have big strong guys on the team and hopefully we’ll be able to manage it.”

For now, Nibali seems content simply to have secured his first victory since the 2010 Vuelta a España. Of course, he didn’t win a stage during that Spanish campaign, and he explained that the last time he had raised his arms in triumph was at the Trofeo Melinda that August. It had been a long time coming.

“A win is always beautiful and crossing the line first is something you can’t explain,” Nibali said. “It’s like in football for a striker who hasn’t scored for a long time; when he does, it’s a bit of a liberation.”

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