February 20/15 14:37 pm - Tour of Oman: Stage 4

Posted by Editoress on 02/20/15
 

While many were expecting former winners like Vincenzo Nibali or Joaquim Rodriguez to shine on the hardest stage of the Tour of Oman, Spaniard Rafael Valls was the one to tame the Green Mountain. In the last kilometre of the climb, the Lampre-Merida rider powered away, eventually crossing the line ahead of Tejay van Garderen and Alejandro Valverde. Valls captures the overall leaders Red Jersey with two stages to go.

For the first time in the history of the Tour of Oman, the riders set off from the Sultan Qaboos Grande Mosque. On the fourth day, the pack would have to take on the most demanding stage of the Tour with the brutal climb up Jabal Al Akhdhar at the end of a 189 km race. The 139 remaining riders (one non starter: Declercq, TSV) took off at 10:44 with one extra major issue to deal with: the wind. The pack would indeed struggle against a strong face wind.

As soon as the first kilometre, four riders broke away: the Green jersey, Andrea Guardini (Astana), the combativity jersey Jef Van Merhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) as well as Vandenberghe (Etixx-Quick Step) and Van Hoecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0. At km 9, their advantage had reached 2:40 and kept on growing. The first intermediate sprint (km 18.5) was claimed by Guardini ahead of Van Merheaghe and Van Hoecke while the pack remained 4:50 adrift. Happy with the points and bonus seconds they had collected, Guardini and Van Merheaghe then stopped their efforts and were caught by the peloton at km 23.

Meanwhile Vandenberghe and Van Hoecke continued pushing hard at the front. After 30 kilometres they could enjoy a 7’05 lead over a pack led by the Trek Factory team of red jersey Fabian Cancellara. At a rather slow pace, the gap however continued to increase in the warm temperature (35°C) of Oman. After three hours of racing, the average speed had indeed dropped down to only 31.1km/h and the gap reached a maximum 14:45 at km 73. Teams BMC, Movistar and Trek then decided to take on the chase at a slightly faster pace. With 25kms to go, the front two could still enjoy a 3’50 lead. Ten kilometres later, that gap remained the same. At the second bonus sprint (km 178) won by Vandenberghe ahead of Van Hoecke, the pack led by Guardini, third, had moved closer, at 1:45. The front two were finally caught at km 183.

In the first few kilometres of the climb, Fabian Cancellara (TFR) was dropped, knowing then that he was living his last moments in red. A group of just over twenty riders pulled away with under 5 kilometres to go. After attacking twice, it was then Vincenzo Nibali’s turn to struggle wih 3kms to go, leaving ahead of him riders like Fuglsang (Astana), van Garderen, Hermans (BMC Racing), Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), Moreno (Katusha), Pinot (FDJ), Valverde (Movistar), Jense Van Rensburg, Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) and Valls (Lampre - Merida). In the final kilometre only three men were left in the lead: van Garderen, Majka and Valls.

Valls eventually produced his effort in the last 500m powering away from his main rivals. He crossed the finish line victoriously with a 5s lead over van Garderen, 19” over Valverde and 22” over Majka. Thanks to his success, his first ever in Oman, Rafael Valls conquers the overall leader’s Red Jersey. The Spaniard has a 9s advantage over van Garderen and 19s over Valverde with two stages to go in this 6th edition. The Points Green Jersey remains on the shoulders of Andrea Guardini while Louis Meintjes takes command of the best young rider classification (white jersey). Van Merheaghe comforts his lead in the combativity standing.

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