Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) had looked so good on the early stages of the Tour of Oman that there was almost an air of resignation among his rivals ahead of the decisive summit finish on Green Mountain. Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) was one of the few clinging onto a sense of optimism, but the last vestige evaporated as he watched the Kazakh champion surge away from him in the last 150 metres. Pozzovivo had started the day fifth overall, 27 seconds down on Lutsenko, and quickly emerged as the closest challenger on the double-digit climb to the finish. After the field had been blown into small fragments, Lutsenko attacked with just over 1.5km to go, and Pozzovivo was the only rider who could stay with him. Third-placed Jesús Herrada (Cofidis) did for 200 metres or so but Lutsenko kicked again and it was down to two. Pozzovivo didn`t manage to overhaul Grellier and so settled for third on the stage and second place overall, with the standings unlikely to change on Thursday`s final stage on the Mattrah Corniche.ADVERTISEMENT `Lutsenko has been very strong, and today it was not possible for me to beat him,` Pozzovivo told Cyclingnews after riding back down the mountain. `I tried to stay with him, and maybe in the finale, if he didn`t want to win all the stages here then I could try to win, but there was also Grellier from the break, so that changed my plan a little. `It was a very hard climb. It started fast, with CCC setting a good pace, and that was important because the breakaway was still far away. After that there was a bit of tactics, where I think the breakaway didn`t lose anything. Then Lutsenko started accelerating and we went as two. It was so hard towards the end, we did our best not to blow up but to arrive close to the man out front, but the final bit it was very hard to keep a good speed.` Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Giro d`Italia and the Vuelta a Espana
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
|
