Perfect timing for Colbrelli

February 19 ^th 2019 - 15:16 [GMT + 4]

Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) sprinted to victory on Tuesday after a hard-fought stage 4 of the Tour of Oman. The Italian champ snatched his first win of the season ahead of Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Pro Team) and Clément Venturini (AG2R-La Mondiale) after the early attackers were caught by a reduced bunch inside the final kilometre - a perfect boost for him ahead of the Classics. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) retains the red jersey on the eve of the Queen stage with the summit finish in Green Mountain on Wednesday.

A pack of 120 riders start stage 4 after three riders abandoned during stage 3. Attacks fly from the gun but it takes 17 km of hard battle for three riders to get away: Nathan van Hooydonck (CCC Pro Team), Darwin Atapuma (Cofidis) and Ian Boswell (Katusha-Alpecin). They are joined by Damien Gaudin (Direct Énergie) 5 km further. Jérémy Leveau (Delko Marseille Provence) also gets in the break just ahead of the first intermediate sprint (km 27) dominated by Boswell.

The American rider also claims the points atop the climbs of Al Jissah (km 31) and Al Wadi Al Kabir (km 38). Alexey Lutsenko’s Astana set the pace in the bunch to control the gap around 3’30”. Boswell then takes the the points atop the three ascents of Al Jabal Street (km 74.5, km 89 and km 104). Jeremy Leveau is dropped in the second ascent and Damien Gaudin in the third.

Greg Van Avermaet’s CCC set the pace for the bunch in these climbs and the gap gets down under 1 minute with 23 km to go. The breakaway looks doomed but the leading trio manages to maintain a 28” gap 5 km away from the finish… They’re finally caught inside the last kilometre and can only watch Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) storm to victory.