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Kristoff strikes on Tour of Oman’s first stage

Fifth career Tour of Oman stage win for Norwegian

February 14, 2017
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Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha-Alpecin) sped to his fifth career Tour of Oman victory on Tuesday’s first stage of the 8th edition. The Norwegian emerged from a chaotic bunch sprint to nab the race’s first lead, swapping his two-shades-of-red kit for a jersey of yet another shade of red.

Tuesday’s opener was one for the sprinters. The route described a 176.5-km horseshoe running counter clockwise from Al Sawadi Beach to Naseem Park. Riders would roll a slight uphill for the first half of the day before heading downhill for the second half.


Immediately a five-man breakaway including the ever-cool Giuseppe Fonzi (Italy/Wilier Triestina) dashed away. Katusha did the yeoman’s work to hold the gap and then gradually decrease it.


The quintet wasn’t allowed more than a 3:30 gap. Aime De Gendt (Belgium/Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) was first through both of the day’s intermediate sprints. Two riders dropped away and with 10-km to go the fugitives were captured.

With 6-km remaining the course hit a U-turn on the Batinah Coastal Highway. Then the road split at the 2-km to go point before returning to one road at the red kite. Tom Boonen (Belgium/Quick Step) was involved in a crash, part of an all-around messy sprint.

But Kristoff found the daylight and hit the thrusters to take his second victory of the season, staving off Italian duo Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data) and Sonny Cobrelli (Bahrain-Merida) for the flowers.

Alexander Cataford of UnitedHealthcare was first Canadian at 52nd.

Wednesday’s stage features four climbs in 145.5-km, including the Al Jissah peaking 5-km from the finish in Al Bustan.


Tour of Oman Stage 1
1) Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha-Alpecin) 3:46:29
2) Kristian Sbaragli (Italy/Dimension Data) s.t.
3) Sonny Cobrelli (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) s.t.
52) Alexander Cataford (Canada/UnitedHealthcare) s.t.
142) Hugo Houle (Canada/AG2R) +4:03