Cort Nielsen shows his extended range

February 16 th 2018 - 16:33 [GMT + 4]

An explosive stage 4 on the Tour of Oman saw all of the sprinters get dropped on the way to the Ministry of Tourism… except for Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana). The Danish youngster proved that he is more than just a fastman as he hanged on in a 25-man front group before claiming victory ahead of Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) and Alberto Bettiol (BMC Racing Team). Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) finished 4th to retain the leader’s red jersey on the eve of Green Mountain.

 

With only 117.5km ahead, the battle for the break was a hard one. Loïc Chetout (Cofidis, Solutions crédits) attacked as soon as the flag dropped. But it took him 5km to get away with Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Rémi Cavagna (Quick-Step Floors), Casper Pedersen (Aqua Blue Sport), Pieter Weening (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) and Jon Irisarri (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

 

BMC Racing Team controlled the gap under 3 minutes and the attackers’ lead was already down to 1 minute when they tackled the main challenges of the days, with three ascents of the climb of Al Jabal Street (Bousher Al Amerat) in the final 50km of the stage. Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) attacked in the penultimate ascent and rode away with Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) while Katusha-Alpecin were driving the peloton.

 

Peter Stetina eventually went solo with 18km to go. He was then enjoying a 35” lead but a fierce battle in the last climb ended his move. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) was the first to go, before his teammate Gorka Izagirre tried to get away. But BMC Racing Team and Astana controlled a reduced pack in the last 13.5km. And Magnus Cort Nielsen proved to be the fastest in order to claim his first victory with his new team.

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