Gesink closes in on overall victory 1

February 19 ^th 2011 - 15:07

On the menu of the day: an extremely difficult 18.5km time-trial with a start and finish at the Shangri-La Baar Al Jissah resort. After the mountain top finish at Jabal Al Akhdhar yesterday, it was another hard day on the bike for the 124 remaining riders (two non starters: De Kort and Haussler).

Taking off with the Red Jersey on his shoulders, it looked to be a difficult task for climber Robert Gesink (RAB) against the time-trial specialists, but the Dutchman made the best of the long climbs on the course to set a final time of 29’21”, at an average speed of 37.841km/h.

Italian road champion and 5th overall this morning, Giovanni Visconti (FAR) had to settle for the second best time, 16” adrift, while another Italian, Marco Pinotti (THR) was third, at 24”. Title-holder and World time-trial champion, Fabian Cancellara (LEO) was only fourth, at 27”.

In the new overall standings, Robert Gesink increases his lead and now has a 1’13 advantage over Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY), fifth today. Third overall, Visconti is 1’19 adrift. Gesink will be wearing the Red Jersey again tomorrow for the final stage of the Tour of Oman, a 157km flat stage from Qurayyat to the Mattrah Seafront. The Rabobank rider also leads the best young riders’ standings, while Hagen keeps the Green Jersey and Kump remains the leader of the most aggressive riders’ classification.

Robert Gesink (Rabobank): “A big surprise…”

“It’s a really big surprise to have won the time-trial. When I took off on the course, my goal was to try and keep the Red Jersey. To win a time-trial is a huge surprise but the course was very difficult and suited me and the fact that we were on normal bikes helped me. It was already very special to win yesterday’s stage, it was my goal on this Tour of Oman, so to win today’s time-trial is fantastic. Now I have to keep control of the Red Jersey.”