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Tom Dumoulin to make season debut at Tour of Oman

Tuesday hears the gun of the 7th Tour of Oman in Muscat, where Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), surprise package of last year's Vuelta a España, starts his season.

Tom Dumoulin

Tuesday hears the gun of the 7th Tour of Oman in Muscat, where Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), surprise package of last year’s Vuelta a España, starts his season. The Tour of Oman is gaining a reputation as a fine early season stage race, sort of a more hilly and scenic Tour of Qatar.

The hills feature in the first two stages, with a short steep ramp peaking 4-km before the finish of Stage 1 in Al Bustan, and then a 2.8-km uphill scramble to the line in Qurityat for Stage 2.

After a sprinter’s day in Naseem Park comes the queen stage with the climax on Green Mountain, 5.7-km of 10.5% climbing. Green Mountain (Jabal Al Akhdhar) is where Rafael Valls (Spain/Lampre) won last year to set himself up for the GC crown. Other winners on Green Mountain have been 2013 and 2014 champion Chris Froome, Joaquim Rodriguez, Vincenzo Nibali and Robert Gesink.

The fifth stage is also a tough one, with three passages of the Bousher Al Amerat, a 3.4-km, 6.8% dig, over 33-km. The final day on Sunday, February 21, had two hills in a 130.5-km course suited to the sprinters at the Matrah Corniche.

After skipping the Dubai Tour and being banned from the Tour of Qatar, Etixx-QuickStep is back with Daniel Martin hoping to recreate the form that saw him win Stage 2 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana at the beginning of the month.

Richie Porte (Australia/BMC) was second to countryman Simon Gerrans at the Tour Down Under. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana), 14th in the Tour de San Luis, is building his form up for the Giro d’Italia in May. AG2R sends a one-two punch of Romain Bardet (France) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy). A non-WorldTour outsider is Eduardo Sepúlveda (Argentina/Fortuneo-Vital Concept), runner-up to Dayer Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) in the Tour de San Luis.

Bardet and Pozzovivo’s teammate Hugo Houle is once again Canada’s sole representative in the Tour of Oman.