Tour of Oman: Stage 3

Maiden pro win for Soren Andersen on stage 3 of the Tour of Oman, Ben Hermans continues to lead overall

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Tour of Oman: Stage 3

Unlike stage 2, a six-rider breakaway formed in the first 10km, including Matt Brammeier, and built a steady advantage of more than four minutes.

BMC Racing Team with the race lead to protect, was on the defence all day, working hard at the front of the peloton to protect Hermans’ lead and eventually bring the breakaway back.

As the peloton reached the 10km to go mark, the battle was on for positioning and attacks started before the start of the final climb.

Daniel Oss was leading the peloton until the first switchback, when Laurens De Plus (QuickStep-Floors) attacked, followed by Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team).

Hermans made a move and it was only a select group, including eventual winner Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) and Rui Costa (UAE Abu Dhabi) who finished in second, who could go with him and overtake De Plus.

The stage was won by Soren Andersen (Sunweb) whilst Hermans leads the General Classification by two seconds over Costa, and ten seconds over Jakob Fuglsan. … continued after advert

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Søren Andersen said: “The team was amazing again today. They delivered me to the bottom of the climb as fresh as possible. After their great work it was up to me to finish the job. I started the sprint with 250m to go and from then on rode full gas. It was an incredible feeling to cross the line in first place. It was a day of great team effort and great legs and one I will remember.”

Ben Hermans: The race leader from BMC crossed the line in third place . “It was very hard for everybody. Laurens De Plus (QuickStep-Floors) attacked and the tempo was a little too high for Greg Van Avermaet. We hoped Greg would be there to sprint in the last 200 meters for the victory but De Plus was too far ahead and I had to close the gap. Two other guys were on my wheel and they came over. I also took some bonus seconds so it wasn’t too bad.”

“I’m confident that I can hold onto the jersey. Two days in red is already a good result. We hope for a stage win with Greg so hopefully that may come tomorrow. Rui Costa is more of an explosive rider but you can see that I can be with him on these kind of climbs, so on a longer climb like Green Mountain, I think it will be more Merhawi Kudus (Team Dimension Data) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) who I have to look out for.”

Greg Van Avermaet: “I was third on this stage last year but this year it was different. It’s not a problem though, we still have a good opportunity on tomorrow’s stage where I was second last year. We will see what happens.”

Stage 3
1. Søren Andersen, Team Sunweb
2. Rui Costa, UAE Abu Dhabi
3. Ben Hermans, BMC Racing Team
4. Laurens De Plus, Quick-Step Floors
5. Jakob Fuglsang, Astana Pro Team
6. David de la Cruz, Quick-Step Floors
7. Romain Bardet, AG2R La Mondiale
8. Merhawi Kudus, Dimension Data
9. Fabio Aru, Astana Pro Team 0:04
10. Lachlan Morton, Dimension Data

19. Daniel Pearson, Aqua Blue Sport
103. Adam Blythe, Aqua Blue Sport
130. Andrew Fenn, Aqua Blue Sport
141. Matthew Brammeier, Aqua Blue Sport 8:02

OVERALL SO FAR
1. Ben Hermans, BMC Racing Team
2. Rui Costa, UAE Abu Dhabi @0:02
3. Jakob Fuglsang, Astana Pro Team @0:10

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