After each of his three stage wins at the Tour of Oman, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) has climbed onto the podium, raised his arms, looked up, and pointed to the sky. On the first two occasions, he declined to explain what lay behind the salute but after conquering Green Mountain on Wednesday he revealed that it was for his family and his wife, who suffered a miscarriage in December. Lutsenko had clearly been emotional on the podiums earlier in the race but AstanaŽs press officer explained he wanted to wait until Green Mountain, which effectively sealed his second consecutive overall title, before opening up about what he has been through. Elena Lutsenko was two months pregnant with twins when tragedy struck.ADVERTISEMENT `I won this stage for my wife,` Lutsenko said. `For me, this is a really difficult time for us. We lost two kids. The start of the new season is a difficult time for me and my family.` Lutsenko touched on how heŽd won, how heŽd attacked three times in the final two kilometres of the brutally steep climb and dropped all his rivals before passing the last survivor of the breakaway to complete his hat trick of stage victories. However, the details faded into insignificance as he grappled with what this meant to him. `This victory is just for my wife... just for my wife,` he said, voice cracking. `Thank you to my wife.`
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