Van Avermaet claims maiden victory

February 15 ^th 2018 - 16:09 [GMT + 4]

The eighth try was the good one for Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team)! After many participations on the Tour of Oman and a place of second on Wednesday, the Olympic champion finally added a victory in the Sultanate to his stellar collection of wins. The Belgian star made the most of a hilly finish on the way to the Wadi Dayqah Dam to dominate Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team). With his first win in 2018, he also takes the red leader's jersey from Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin).

Loïc Chetout (Cofidis, Solutions crédits) was determined to shine his golden jersey at the front of the race and accumulate points in the most aggressive rider classification. The Frenchman attacked from the gun and quickly got away with Xandro Meurisse (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Wouter Wippert (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) and Nicholas Schultz (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). The 4 man breakaway enjoyed a three minute lead after 11km but the Katusha-led peloton quickly reacted to control the gap.

Lutsenko third again

The lead never got higher than 4'30" but Chetout managed to snatch 12 points before getting back to the peloton to remain leader of the most aggressive rider classification. Meurisse and Schultz were the last riders at the front with a lead down to 50" with 27km to go. They eventually got reeled in 21km away from the finish line.

Astana Pro Team set a hard pace in the final climb of the day. The pack was down to 50 riders at the summit (8.5km to go) as the Asian team was setting the place for Alexey Lutsenko. But the Kazakh talent finished once again third while Van Avermaet was flying to victory, opening a 3" gap on the line over Rui Costa and Lutsenko. Nathan Haas finished 5th with a delay of 7".