Tuesday, March 19
01:03 PM

Competition heats up as final Tour of Oman race draws near

13 Feb 2022

Fausto Masnada took the solo win and the red leader’s jersey after stage four victory

Muscat – The Tour of Oman, in its 11th edition, is witnessing a heated competition among the participants as the final stage draws near. Fausto Masnada, of the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team, took the solo win and the red leader’s jersey after a thrilling stage from Al Sifah to Royal Opera House Muscat on Sunday.

The rolling route saw action from the start until the finish, with a 119.5km dominated by the Wolfpack’s collective strength. Masnada’s partner Mauro Schmid opened things up early in the stage and eventually dominated the sprint in the seven-man group that finished 1’07’’ behind the Italian climber, including the former leader of the race Anthon Charmig (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team). Masnada is the fourth leader of the Tour of Oman 2022 ahead of the ascent of Jabal Akhdhar on Monday.

It was a sunny start on the coast for the 98-man peloton but they proved to be in a hurry to battle rather than enjoy the views of Al Sifah. Attacks flew from the start, but it took 13km for a group of three attackers to settle at the front: Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane’), Julen Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Michael Kukrle (Gazprom-RusVelo).

Crazy early battles
Already part of the breakaway on stage three, Zoccarato dominated the first intermediate sprint (km 27) and the following climb (km 31), but Team DSM were already putting the hammer down to try and turn the race upside down.

The early attackers were caught at km 37, the pace didn’t drop down and the group around Anthon Charmig (UnoX Team) was quickly down to nine riders.

Mauro Schmid (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) kept the aggressive racing going with another attack at km 44. The young Swiss talent, only trailing by 17’’ overall, was joined 13km later by Team DSM’s Soren Kragh Andersen and Jonas Hvideberg, Groupama-FDJ’s Antoine Duchesne and Gazprom-RusVelo’s Marco Canola.

Non-stop action
The ever-attacking Zoccarato bridged the gap on the first ascent of Al Jabal Street (Bousher-Amerat, km 74.5). The reduced peloton trailed by one minute, with UAE Team Emirates and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux doing most of the work.

Schmid went solo on the following ascent of Al Jabal Street (km 89), where Fausto Masnada and Jan Hirt (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) launched new attacks alongside Arkea-Samsic’s Elie Gesbert and Team DSM’s Kevin Vermaerke and Henri Vandenabeele.

Masnada’s final push
A small group got back together behind Schmid as they headed for the final ascent of Al Jabal Street, to be summited with 15km to go. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-Samsic) set off in pursuit of Mauro Schmid and went over the top with a 10’’ gap to a seven-man group: the race leader Charmig, Masnada and Schmid, Vermaerke and Vandenabeele, Costa, and Hirt.

Vauquelin was caught with 12km to go, and Masnada immediately launched a new attack. Charmig tried to limit his losses but Masnada flew to victory with a 1’07’’ gap on the line.

Today, the fifth stage (150.5 km) will kick off from the Wilayat of Samail to the finish line in Jabal Akhdar. The sixth and last stage will start Tuesday from Al Mouj Muscat to Muttrah corniche.

© 2021 Apex Press and Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Mesdac