STAGE 3: Sultan Qaboos - Jabal al Akhtar 155 KM's
Stage Favourites:
*****Szymd(IBA) ****Serpa(CAR) ***Atapuma(SAH)
**De Weert(SWI) *Clarke(BLU)
The first mountain top finish in this TOTC awaits.....
It rains in Oman too.....
The downhearted weather was a reason why the 6 man break of the day were allowed to get away straight away. Lobato (32nd @ 1'10) was the best placed rider, he was joined by Barker, Maes, Champion, Morajko and .....
Dmitry Muravyev who is already 9'01 down. He finished in the top 10 in TOTC4 but has very little chance of repeating this feat.
Despite having the red jersey Nokia Ekspla put very few men on the front of the peloton, Team Iberia took up the lion share of the pace setting, putting all the eggs in the Szymd basket.
23 KM to go: Malori is the only rider out the rear of the peloton....
The break have 2'45 on the peloton and are holding off very well. Team Iberia are still the main pace setters although some domestiques such as Pate and Bodnar and helping out from Swiss Life and Aer Lingus.
Morajko and Champion have broke for glory.....
With 9 km to go they have attacked their fellow escapees and have '50 over them and 2'10 over the big favourites group.
But wit the steep final climb looming at 5 KM to go chances are still slim.
Chernetskiy, Charteau & Atapuma............
are the first riders to attack from the favourites group. Golcer and Bochman are also putting in small attacks which drastically reduces the gap to the breakaway men, however, we haven't had a massive attack yet.
Morajko is still out front with 3 KM to go......
But it is only a matter of time until the favourites surge up the mountain and gobble him up. The attack comes....... the big one.....
Szmyd attacks!
He puts in a big attack and passes Morajko where his name is painted on the mountain road.
There is some hesitation behind. Golcer and Bochman set pace towards the front whilst an attack from Sella gets nowhere..... Szymd extends his lead....
Cummings attacks with just under 1 KM to go.
The Sahin Sucuklari rider immediately puts distance into the other favourites lead by Serpa, but Szymd is some '40 ahead so there is little chance of the stage victory, but there is every chance of the GC lead.
Speaking of the GC lead Schierlinckx is well over 1'00 down so he can wave goodbye to the red.
Cummings finishes ... but he is '26 down on Szymd. Serpa shows well in the final kilometre and finishes with a late surge to gain some extra seconds over a 10 man group led by Tschopp. We only saw Tschopp for the first time with 200 meters to go, keeping his powder dry maybe?
3 days, 3 different people in the red jersey
Szymd taking the win means he moves into the race lead, but only just. Cummings showed really well and is just '4 down as we head into China.
Some riders, who may have hoped for a good GC, did lose some time today, but it can still be made up.
STAGE RESULTS:
| 1 | Sylwester Szmyd | Team Iberia | 3h53'00 | | 2 | Stephen Cummings | Sahin Sucuklari | + 26 | | 3 | José Serpa | Cartoon Network | + 45 | | 4 | Johann Tschopp | Aer Lingus | + 50 | | 5 | Leopold König | Nespresso | s.t. | | 6 | Juan Manuel Gárate | Aer Lingus | s.t. | | 7 | Luca Ascani | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 8 | John Darwin Atapuma | Sahin Sucuklari | s.t. | | 9 | Thomas Rohregger | Sahin Sucuklari | s.t. | | 10 | Kevin De Weert | SwissLife | s.t. |
5 UC points: Who finished 13th? (Send me a PM) |
Nespresso were pretty inactive until the last few hundred metres. When Cummings attacks you can see no Nespresso rider in the group of 5 or so behind, they only showed up at the finish line. 
