@sutty: why thank you! I thought I needed a change Minion cycling story next?

After a fantastic ride in the Tour de San Luis, the team heads to the desert for the Tour of Oman. A talent field is present in Oman, and we will be looking to show ourselves in the stages.

Adam Yates will target the Stage 5 Summit Finish on Green Mountain in his battle for a good GC placing, and he will be well supported in the race. Henri St-Pierre and Linus Gerdemann will work as domestiques, with his brother Simon also giving support.

Luke Rowe will be the squad's main sprinter, and his lead-out is bolstered by the Italian pair of Marco Canola and Marco Frapporti. Swedish TT specialists Tobias Ludvigsson will be the pilot in the train, and completes the 8-man team.


Sponsor Goal: Top 5 GC
Team Goal: Top 10 GC
Best Result: N/A

Stage 1 should end in a mass sprint, so the team will be looking at working for Luke Rowe today. We come to the race with one of our strongest lead-out trains, so there will be high hopes for the team. The only downside could be the lack of fitness.

A day in the break for St-Pierre could take some pressure of the team to help with the chase.

With the stage certainly going to end in a mass sprint, Lotto, Quickstep and Cannondale took up the pace making from the beginning of the stage. Riders tried attack of the front, but the high pace meant that it was pulled back very quickly.



The 'day's break' gained a maximum of 54" over the pack as it approached the KoM sprint. Lotto soon brought it back, and it was all set for a mass sprint finish at Sultan Qaboos University.



With 3km to go, Tobias organised the lead-out and piloted the train to the front with a purpose. OmegaPharma, Katusha and Lotto were also looking well organised, and it was going to be a great finish.



When the sprint started, the Big Guns really flexed their muscles. Cavendish (OmegaPharma) went early, forcing Katusha to react. Griepel (Lotto) showed nerves of steel, coming out of the wheels in the last 100 metres to take the win. Rowe finished strongly to finish 8th.

1	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	3h21'21
2	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
3	Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
4	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	s.t.
5	Kenny Dehaes	Lotto Belisol	s.t.

1	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	3h21'01
2	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 8
3	Andrea Fedi	Androni Giocattoli	+ 10
4	Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 12
5	Andreas Schillinger	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.

Stage 2 in Oman provides more of a test for the riders than yesterday. Whilst starting in similar fashion, with a gradual climb to a sprint, the end of the race sees two steep climbs that could cause problems for the more out and out sprinters.

We will aim for the break in the stage, with again St-Pierre playing the free role. The team will work for Luke on a whole, but could try something on the final climb before the finish to try and better the others.

For a while, we were convinced that we were seeing a carbon copy of yesterday's stage. Lotto and OmegaPharma set a high pace from the off, and not a single rider was allowed off the front until after the Intermediate Sprint.



When it finally did form, Henri was part of the day's break, along with Edwin �vila (Colombia) and Patrick Facchini (Androni). The trio worked well early in the formation of the lead group, but as the stage wore on, �vila attacked off on his own.



Hitting the final climb of the day, only �vila remained off the front. Adam Yates was brought to the front by Linus and without looking behind, he put in a small attack, opening a gap on the rest.



He continued to set a pace, and he bridged to �vila reaching the top of the climb. He left him for dead on the descent, as behind, only Florencio and Kristoff (both Katusha) tried to pull back the young Briton, but there was no catching him.



Yates celebrated a great win for the team on the line, with Gerdemann coming in 4th! He had followed the move by the Katusha pair, but refused to work in order to protect his Leader. Fantastic teamwork from the German. The day was truly one to remember, as Rowe sprinted for 6th in the main bunch.

1	Adam Yates	Bianchi Factory Team	3h16'04
2	Xavier Florencio	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Linus Gerdemann	Bianchi Factory Team	+ 41
5	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 1'14

1	Adam Yates	Bianchi Factory Team	6h37'03
2	Xavier Florencio	Katusha Team	+ 10
3	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	+ 12
4	Linus Gerdemann	Bianchi Factory Team	+ 57
5	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'10

Bianchi Factory Racing are to be part of the iconic Ardennes Classics, after their Wildcard Application for the Amstel Gold Race was accepted by the Race Organisers.

The Dutch race, taking place on the 14th April, is currently pencilled in as the team's first WorldTour Race outside of Italy, and there are high hopes for acceptance for the Wildcard applications for La Flèche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Bianchi are one of 6 teams named for the race, with Vacansoleil, Orica-Greenedge, Androni Giocattoli, Accent Job-Wanty and Cofidis also having their dossiers accepted.