Tour of Oman stage 5: Boasson Hagen strikes again

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Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) has victories in a time trial and an uphill finish to his name already this season, and he showcased the full extent of his range by claiming a sprint win for good measure on stage 5 of the Tour of Oman.

The Norwegian has been one of the strongest riders in these early weeks of the 2016 season, and two other fast starters -Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) were also to the fore on a rugged day that brought the Tour of Oman from the pretty coastal outpost of Yiti to the outskirts of Muscat.

Bardet, second to Nibali on Green Mountain the previous afternoon and just 15 seconds down in the overall standings, showed few inhibitions in attacking the Sicilian towards the summit of the third and final time up Bousher Al Amarat, but Nibali and his Astana teammate Jakob Fuglsang were equal to the task of shutting him down on the wide twisting highway.

The rapid descent off the final climb heralded a flurry of attacks, as Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) all trying their luck but as the road flattened out, a group of 30 or so riders was left in front to dispute the stage honours.

There was still the small matter of sweeping up the two survivors from the day’s early break -Pieter Weening (Roompot Oranje Peloton) and Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data), but their brave effort was finally snuffed out with a shade over two kilometres remaining. From there, with almost all of the fast men barring Boasson Hagen and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) distanced during the three ascents of Boucher Al Amarat, the outcome had the feel of a formality, and so it proved.

Boasson Hagen was expertly teed up by his teammate Nathan Haas, and the Norwegian, so placid off the bike, unleashed such fury in the sprint that Van Avermaet was beaten by more than a length. Marco Canola (UnitedHealthcare) was a distant third, ahead of fellow countrymen Simone Ponzi (CCC-Sprandi) and Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep).

“I was feeling pretty good already in Qatar and I’ve taken two stages here now so I’m pretty happy with that,” Boasson Hagen said afterwards. “I feel sorry for (teammate) Jacques because he was so close to winning, but I feel happy for myself.”

It was Van Avermaet’s fifth placing in the top five during the Tours of Qatar and Oman but the Belgian, still waiting for his first win of the year, had no complaints about his defeat here.

“Boasson Hagen’s in a great form, and he showed that by staying with the leaders for so long on Green Mountain yesterday,” Van Avermaet said. “But I’m very happy with my condition. It would have been better to get a win, but I’m up there the whole time.”

How it happened

While the pre-stage focus was on the finishing circuit at the Ministry of Tourism and the triple ascent of Bousher Al Amarat, the terrain was rugged from the outset on stage 5, as the peloton set out from Yiti and on a sinuous path through the mountains in the hinterland of Al Sifah.

Indeed, kilometre zero was on a particularly stiff but uncategorised climb and Janse Van Rensburg danced clear almost as soon as the flag was dropped. He was later joined by Weening and Hugo Houle (AG2R-La Mondiale), and the trio established a maximum lead of 5:50 before Astana and Lampre-Merida began to set about narrowing the gap.

On the second ascent of Bousher Al Amarat, Van Rensburg put in a testing attack that dropped Houle and briefly distanced Weening, though the Dutchman latched back on once again on the descent. Bardet’s AG2R-La Mondiale team, meanwhile, was active in the peloton behind, and their efforts on the second ascent whittled down the peloton significantly but failed to discommode Nibali or his Astana guard.

Approaching the top of the final ascent, with just over 14 kilometres to race, Bardet himself launched a fierce acceleration, but was marked tightly by Fuglsang – third on GC at 24 seconds – and the Frenchman was ultimately forced to desist.

“It was a complicated,” Bardet said after wheeling to a halt at the finish. “The team did a good job, but here was a headwind in the finale after the climb so it was hard for anyone to get away.”

Nibali was glad to maintain a largely watching brief, and is on the brink of final overall victory.

“Today was a hard stage because we had to do that climb three times and we had yesterday’s efforts in our legs,” he said. “But my team controlled it well and I had Michele Scarponi and Fuglsang with me in the finale, so it was perfect.”

Up fronton the final climb meanwhile, Van Rensburg was unable to shake Weening and with only 38 seconds in hand with 10 kilometres to go, there was an inevitability about their fate.

“I knew they were coming but I was looking around and I didn’t really see them so I thought okay, maybe I’d have to sprint,” Van Rensburg said. “Then when I saw them coming, I was a little bit disappointed but cycling is a team sport. I’m just happy we could win a stage with Edvald.”

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