Tour of Oman - Stage 5

After the surprising victory by Riblon yesterday he looks to have the GC in the back. However the organization managed to pull one more climb out of the bag and it will be repeated three times. The GC might not be as over as presumed on beforehand.



The usual breakaway were Damuseau (CCC), Velasco (EUS), Zardini (TNE), Berhane (MTN) and Petrov (TTS)



While ascending to the first intermediate sprint, Astana managed to break the peloton by pacing while BMC was on the second row. With the majority of the BMC team not being super on the climbs they lost contact and everybody behind them as well. Riblon was alert thought and was in the Astana Group.



We’ve made a full lap and are back at the intermediate sprint climb, Peraud (ALM) is the first to attack this time and Roche isn’t going to lose twice. Can Roche make up the 1’53� gap to Riblon. They have the breakaway in sight but with the downhill still to come they look to be able to decide for victory.



Roche are still together at the intermediate sprint and only De las Campos (EUS) is able to follow.



Meanwhile in the breakaway Velasco is going to try a solo victory. With Zardini not being able to get over the climbs it’s 3 against 1 in the breakaway.’



This is how it currently looks

Breakaway (all together now) has a 1’13� minute advantage to Zardini who has a 1’16� advantage to Group Roche. The Main group is trailing Group Roche by 44 seconds and includes: Hanzen, Felline, Dillier, Owniak and Haga (BMC), Dumoulin and Riblon (ALM), Alarcon and Martinez Machado (CJR), Langov and Contador (TTS), Degenkolb and Ponzi (AST), Hintermuller (MTN), Acevedo (CSS) and Roy (FDJ).


the peloton as it looks right now.

With no climbs left in the race, Contador knows it’s now or never to win the GC, he easily closes the gap to the Roche group and is pulling Alarcon, Riblon, Roy, Owniak and Acevedo with him.



But none of that matters right now, the final sprint has started and Petrov was the first to launch. He’s also the first to be counted out for the win as it’s between Damuseau, Velasco and Berhane.



Velasco is the next to drop out of the race for victory. His attempt to go solo might have ruined a beautiful stage win



Berhane and Damuseau are side by side



it is Berhane however who is the strongest of the four and will take victory for MTN. Damuseau gives CCC a second 2nd place finish in this stage race. Velasco and Petrov will need to settle with
3rd and 4th



Zardini holds on to 5th before the main group that was brought back together by Contador. Roche and Degenkolb make up places 6th and 8th while Peraud and Dumoulin take 7th and 9th. De las Campos also finishes in the top 10 with 10th place.



Nothing in the GC top 10 changes because the breakaway was so much behind that the time they got back was only enough to pull Berhane into 12th place overall. Tinkoff – Saxo takes the lead in the team classification.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Natnael Berhane	MTN - Qhubeka	3h41'32
2	Thomas Damuseau	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
3	Iván Velasco	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
4	Evgeni Petrov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
5	Edoardo Zardini	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 55
6	Nicolas Roche	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'34
7	Jean-Christophe Peraud	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
8	John Degenkolb	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
9	Samuel Dumoulin	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
10	Cristiano De las Campos	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Christophe Riblon	AG2R La Mondiale	17h53'38
2	Nikola Langov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'20
3	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 1'24
4	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'32
5	Damian Owniak	BMC Racing Team	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	General
1	John Degenkolb	Astana Pro Team	71
2	Adrien Hanzen	BMC Racing Team	57
3	Ricardo Martinez Machado	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	44
4	Arnaud Demare	FDJ.fr	39
5	Thomas Damuseau	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	32

Rank	Name	Team	General
1	Christophe Riblon	AG2R La Mondiale	16
2	Nikola Langov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	12
3	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	10
4	Evgeni Petrov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	10
5	Francisco Javier Moreno	Team Champion System	9

Rank	Team	General Time
1	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	53h48'59 (1)
2	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 3'29 (2)
3	Astana Pro Team	+ 11'07 (6)
4	BMC Racing Team	+ 6'42 (3)
5	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 7'57 (4)

Rank	Name	Team	General Time
1	Natnael Berhane	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 3'45 (6)
2	Thomas Damuseau	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	+ 5'10 (8)
3	Edoardo Zardini	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 7'55 (14)
4	John Degenkolb	Astana Pro Team	+ 5'37 (9)
5	Cristiano De las Campos	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 12 (4)