Sutty He is, he sure likes that country!

@Shonak Most definitely, he is on the right way!

And today was M-M-M-M-Mountain time! My first ever mountain stage awaited me! High up to the roof of Oman, or whatever they may call it, the Green Mountain! I had plans of going in the break, but they wouldn't let me due to my good GC, which proved to be right later on, because the breakaway actually won by minutes! Long after the serious contenders for the GC had attacked away from the pack, me and my „friend“ from yesterday, Simon Gerrans, rode away from the peleton together, because it was effectively just a huge groupetto on a not too hard stage. In the end he finished ahead of me again, but it's not too tragic, since GC and most of the points were already mopped up. Still i loved the feeling of riding away from the back on a proper mountain stage, i enjoyed it all the more because it won't happen too often either. Anyway, I'm now 13th in GC, with Nico 14th.

@Sutty Now wouldn't that just be awful.

@Hobbit It is, though Jack is quite handy on the hills too, and the Green Mountain isn't the toughest of climbs.

@Both Well, i kinda felt i had to do it in German, because there's a line in the title song of Heidi or something (i just know it from a completely different youtube video ) "Grüne Wiesen im Sonnenschein" (go translate that too! ), so that title was the first thing to spring to mind. And yes, yours was right Sutty.

No Mountain, but rather a series of hills today. Three of them to be precise, the last one just 13 kilometres from the finish line. I was in 13th in the GC nearly five minutes back, but I wasn't even a minute behind the best young rider, Cameron Meyer. I decided I'd give my best to take that jersey and also secure the points jersey, which i lead by 5 points on Simon Gerrans. I had planned something for the middle hill, but i was too weak, or too badly positioned, or a mixture of both, and both Cam Meyer and Simon Gerrans broke away in a large group, and I lost the green jersey and the chance for the white jersey. I'm really disappointed I couldn't go with them, because I was feeling good all through the stage, so I think it was more a simple and stupid positioning mistake. Anyway, I hope I can do well tomorrow, to end it on a high note.

@Shonak Yeah, sadly. Not like Sam Bennett today (IRL), he podiumed todays stage.

@Sutty It was. Now he'll have to get up, and see what can be saved.

Flat stage today, with a few hills near the finish. I came second in the first intermediate, because Mark and Steven kept the break very close to the peleton, so i could outsprint all but one of the previous breakaway. If i hadn't been boxed in with 800 metres to go, i'd have won it and passed Simon Gerrans. This way, he's still one point ahead of me. A few small attacks started on the hills, me being one of them, but nothing serious really. In the end, i was positioned very well, but i made the mistake of taking Vivianis wheel, which might've costed me the points jersey. Gerrans finished 8th, i finished 12th.

@Sutty I'm sure he will!

So, I'm back home now, or maybe I should rather say I was back home, because by now I'm already in Belgium to train ahead of the Omloop. I'm bunked up in one of the teams appartments now, and I must say it's great being around the guys when you're not racing too. Another upside of being here early is that I can meet the trainer, Guy de Coster, personally. He gave me short round up on how to improve my training, and then we had a talk about my eating habits. It seems I won't be having to many pints anymore. ;-(
Training on the cobbles has also been going along nicely. So nicely in fact, that I have a little plan up my sleeve for Saturday.

Also, apparently I forgot to attach the results from Oman. Here they are:

GC:
1. Yann Huguet Argos-Shimano
2. Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team + 44“
3. Preben van Hecke Topsport Vlaandern-Baloise + 52“
16. Jack O'Connor An Post – Chainreaction + 5'11“


Points:
1. Simon Gerrans Orica-GreenEDGE 68
2. Jack O'Connor An Post-Chainreaction 59
2. Sylvain Chavanel Omega Pharma-Quickstep 59




Youth:
1. Cameron Meyer Orica-GreenEDGE
2. Jack O'Connor An Post-Chainreaction + 3'24“
3. Tom Dumoulin Argos-Shimano + 5'48“

@Sutty Looking forward to it too.

@Shonak Well, wise or not so wise, that's the question!