Tour of Oman - Stage 6

After 5 stages we have reached to end of this year’s Tour of Oman. The sprinters get their final chance for victory today. Though some attackers are looking to beat them using the small climbs near the end of the stage



We see some regulairs in the breakaway today: Orbe (EUS), Murphy (UHC), Valencia (COL), Feunard (CCC), Mori (LAM) and Verona (TNE) are the guys with experience. Xu (CSS) and Lovelock-Fay (DPC) are the rookies in the break.


Best rider in the GC: Orbe (EUS) 70th 19’05�

Breakaway experience however doesn’t secure good results as Feunard decided (or wasn’t able to) to drop from the breakaway back to the peloton.


curios move from the Frenchman

We’ve reached the final circuit that will be raced three times. The peloton has the breakaway in sight which meant to that the riders in the breakaway start to make desperate attacks.


Lovelock-Fay can’t hang on anymore

The breakaway was doomed and when they were eventually caught with 9 k to go, we had an attack out of the peloton. Contador was the one that tries to take the stage or maybe even the GC. He needs 1’32� on Riblon.


Contador attacking on the climb

AG2R needs to start working fast as Contador is gaining time quickly, over a minute already. Bérard is already at the front to work but no other riders are close.


De las Campos started to chase solo, he could take a spot on the final podium

AG2R trusts on the sprinter teams to bring Contador back but is that the smartest thing to do?


Degenkolb with Bozic and Ponzi, Hanzen with Felline and Dillier and Demare with Soupe

On leadouts are going to help today, they fade away immediately after getting into place. We have on train of various stations.


Bozic <- Degenkolb <- Hanzen <- Demare <- Ferrari likely fighting for 3rd place as even da los Campos is out of reach

After a 4th place on the mountain stage he used the second to last hill to get clear from the peloton and was unreachable for everybody. Alberto Contador takes the final stage and might even take the GC. He needs more than 1’32� excluding the boni seconds.


De Los Campos holds on to 2nd place but is missed by the cameras’

Demare beats Hanzen and Ferrari for the final step on the podium while unofficial timing gives a gap of 1’00 exactly. Riblon might hold on to first place overall.



Degenkolb, Martinez Machado, Ciolek, Favilli and Felline make up the rest of the top 10 while Riblon in 11th is given an official 49 seconds gap, meaning that he’ll hold on to the lead in the general classification. By 17 seconds. De las Campos finishes third in the GC due to his late attack.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	3h03'26
2	Cristiano De las Campos	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 49
3	Arnaud Demare	FDJ.fr	s.t.
4	Adrien Hanzen	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Roberto Ferrari	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
6	John Degenkolb	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7	Ricardo Martinez Machado	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
8	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
9	Elia Favilli	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
10	Fabio Felline	BMC Racing Team	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Christophe Riblon	AG2R La Mondiale	20h57'53
2	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 17
3	Cristiano De las Campos	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'16
4	Nikola Langov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'20
5	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 1'24
6	Damian Owniak	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'32
7	Jérémy Roy	FDJ.fr	+ 1'51
8	Nicolas Roche	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'53
9	Janier Acevedo	Team Champion System	s.t.
10	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 2'55

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	John Degenkolb	Astana Pro Team	10	81
2	Adrien Hanzen	BMC Racing Team	14	71
3	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	31	57
4	Arnaud Demare	FDJ.fr	16	55
5	Ricardo Martinez Machado	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	9	53

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Christophe Riblon	AG2R La Mondiale	0	16
2	Nikola Langov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	0	12
3	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	0	10
4	Evgeni Petrov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	0	10
5	Francisco Javier Moreno	Team Champion System	0	9

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Cristiano De las Campos	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3h04'15	20h59'09 (1)
13	Nikola Langov	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.	+ 4 (2)
14	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.	+ 8 (3)
12	Damian Owniak	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 16 (4)
15	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.	+ 1'39 (5)

Rank	Team	General Time
1	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	63h00'55 (1)
6	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 4'18 (2)
2	BMC Racing Team	+ 7'31 (3)
11	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 8'46 (4)
7	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 9'55 (5)

It's a rainy day here in Portugal, but that doesn't stop 4 riders from getting away early on. They are Myrvold, Schwarzmann, De Ieso and Krista Marcus.


Surprisingly there isn't any contest for the sprints or KoM, where De Ieso is the most successful.


With 7km to go the break has 20 seconds, and Myrvold goes for broke.


With 3.5km left Mryvold still has 20", but the rest of the break is pretty much done for. Out of the sprinters, Boeckmans, Ferrari, Ista, Arndt, Sinkeldam and Cardoso are all in the mix.


The sprint starts with 2km left, with Sam Bennet and Francesco Gavazzi coming through on the left.


Myrvold is finally brought back under the banner. Ferrari is in the best position, while Bennett is going at the fastest speed. Sinkeldam and Boeckmans seem to be the others worth watching.


With 700m to go Ferrari is struggling to accelerate; as does Boeckmans. Bennett is still going well but did he go to early?


Looks like it, as Ferrari gets through just 200m out from the line. They're not catching him now!


Yep! Ferrari wins the first stage of the 2014 Volta ao Algarve for Lampre! We'll need a photo to decide second though.


Looks like Boeckmans has just clinched it. Bennett still does pretty well for someone without a leadout.