Team News: Lutsenko win in Oman

In the Tour of Oman, after an impressive attack on the final climb of the day, Alexey Lutsenko of Astana won stage 2 after a solo ride in the final 5 kilometres

Team News: Lutsenko win in Oman

Stage victory for Alexey Lutsenko after a brave solo attack

In the Tour of Oman, after an impressive attack on the final climb of the day, Alexey Lutsenko of Astana won stage 2 after a solo ride in the final 5 kilometres

Photo credit: © Getty Images

At the finish line, he managed to stay just in front of a select group that was chasing him down. Alexander Kristoff remains the race leader at the Tour of Oman as he sprinted to a second place, three seconds behind Lutsenko.

Alexey Lutsenko: “I was motivated for this stage as I knew it suits me quite well. Last year I was third here, so I knew a stage win was possible. I attacked on the last climb and on the top, I already gained an advantage of 15 seconds. I continued pushing hard, also my sports director led me through the last kilometers, giving me great motivation. The final 2 kilometers were hard, but I’ve managed to keep my advantage until the end.”
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“I am really happy with my win. I came to this race with a goal to win at least a stage. So, it’s nice that I achieved this goal already. Tomorrow’s stage suits me as well, but, of course, there are a lot of riders who can do well tomorrow. We will see. Of course, the race will be played on the Green Mountain, this is a very hard climb. I hope to have legs for this climb. I did a very good training camp together with my team on Teide, so I’m hopeful”.

After the start at the Royal Cavalry Oman, the peloton let a small group of riders go for the day’s breakaway at stage 2. On the 156.5 kilometers to Al Bustan, the peloton chased this group until the penultimate climb, where everything came back together. On the final climb, Al Jissah, Alexey Lutsenko took off. The peloton blew apart on this climb, in the attempt to get Lutsenko back.

But the select group of riders behind Lutsenko was not able to catch him before the finish line, as the Kazakh champion finished off his solo attack with a beautiful stage victory. Alexander Kristoff took second place just behind Lutsenko, maintaining his race lead.

Tomorrow, a 192.5-kilometer-long stage from Shati Al Qurum to Qurayyat will be another challenging day with climbing the steep Qurayyat two times in the final 40 kilometers of the stage.