Coquard finds the opening he’s been looking for

February 13 ^th 2018 - 18:35 [GMT + 4]

Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) can forget about his early season frustrations - the French sprinter came out on top at the end of stage 1 of the Tour of Oman to claim his first victory with his new team. After 162.5km of racing on the beautiful roads of the Sultanate, between Nizwa and Sultan Qaboos University, a Sunny Tuesday saw Coquard storm to victory ahead of Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo). He also leads the general and points classifications. A beautiful birthday present for his teammate Kris Boeckmans!

Maxime Farazijn (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Pierre Luc Perichon (Fortuneo-Samsic), Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport) and Brian Van Goethem (Roomport-Nederlandse Loterij) jumped out of the peloton from the gun. They quickly opened a 4’30” gap, only 15km into the stage. Team Cofidis and Team Sunweb were the first to react and set the pace at the front of the pack. UAE Team Emirates and Bahrain-Merida then joined them to ensure a bunch gallop in front of Sultan Qaboos University.

With a gap down to 2 minutes for final 50km, the leaders’ chances to battle it out in the final appeared slim. They eventually got reeled in with 9km to go, after Pierre Luc Perichon sealed the lead in the most aggressive rider classification. It was then time for the sprinters and most of all Bryan Coquard to shine.