Astana make huge impression as Scaroni tears up Tour of Oman finale, leaving Yates, UAE and Jayco AlUla empty-handed

For the first four days of the Tour of Oman, it was twice one for the sprinters, there was a day for attacker Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto–Intermarché), and Mauro Schmid won a punchy finale after also taking Oman’s appetiser, the Muscat Classic. All of that stood in sharp contrast to the brutally steep Green Mountain: 5.7 kilometres at an average of 10.4%, a serious test to decide the race.

The opening phase of the 156-kilometre stage was for sprinters and attackers, who still had the points jersey to fight for. Veistroffer was wearing it, but Juan Sebastián Molano (winner of stage 1) and Erlend Blikra (winner of stage 4) also made the six-man break on behalf of UAE Team Emirates–XRG and Uno-X Mobility.

That set things up for a proper battle for the points, with Veistroffer defending a small lead on 26 points over Molano (24) and Blikra (22). Unfortunately, the six were hauled back before the intermediate sprint. A new group of five then went clear: Johan Price-Pejtersen, Vincenzo Albanese, Florian Dauphin, Fredrik Dversnes Lavik and Jonas Hem Hvideberg.

The five reached the foot of Green Mountain, but the peloton never let them go far. Even when Dversnes pushed on alone, the focus quickly shifted to the GC riders fighting for both the stage and the overall. Valentin Paret-Peintre (last year’s winner on Green Mountain) and race leader Schmid were dropped early.

Adam Yates kept the pace high, but the Brit could not shake his closest rivals. Luke Plapp then looked set to win with a late move for Jayco AlUla, but XDS Astana showed just how good they are right now: Scaroni stormed past him to complete the double — stage win and overall victory. Teammate Rodríguez made it an even bigger day for Astana.