Tour of Oman 2017 – Stage 3 Preview
By David Hunter
Sultan Qaboos University – Quriyat 162km
This is another stage for the climbers and tough puncheurs. Hopefully the organisers don’t change the finish at the last minute!
The stage is all about the final climb. It is 2.8km at 6.5%, that isn’t really hard enough to eliminate all of the fast finishing punchy riders. Last year, we had a mix in the top 3. It was Edvald Boasson Hagen who took the win, Nibali was second and Van Avermaet was third. It is possible for a climber to win the stage, but their team needs to make all of the climb very difficult. If not, the others arrive with a sprint still in their legs.
Contenders
Greg Van Avermaet – this finish is right on his limit. Last year, by the time the last 200m came, he was running on empty. That meant he couldn’t stay with EBH and didn’t even manage to outsprint Nibali. It is up to the other teams to make the climb as difficult as possible, to slow his sprint. If the climb isn’t done full gas, the Belgian has a great chance of success.
Nathan Haas – seems like his wonderful form has no end! After a tremendous TDU, he managed to finish 5th in today. This climb is a little easier than Willunga and he managed to finish 2nd there. It would be nice to see him take an overdue win.
Romain Bardet – time to see what he’s got. This stage and the Green Mountain are where we’ll see if he has the form to challenge for the win. He has a fast finish and in Mathias Frank, a rider to help keep the pace high. He would benefit from a full gas climb. Although, he did only manage to finish 8th here in 2016.
Rui Costa – another good performance today, picking up 2nd place and 6 bonus seconds. It’s good to see him back towards his best, after a period of poor results. The change of team seems to have breathed new life into his career. Was a disappointing 9th here in 2016, he’ll certainly do better than that.
Jakob Fuglsang – Astana have the advantage of numbers. In Fuglsang and Aru, they have two real options for stages and GC. The Dane took 4 bonus seconds today and also benefitted from a gap back to the main riders. He now leads his teammate by 11 seconds, that might change which rider attacks early.
Fabio Aru – the Italian actually has a decent sprint finish in him. Even though he sits a few seconds behind the podium, he still won’t be given any freedom. As soon as he attacks, expect to see him marked by an AG2R rider. That might be Frank, or it could be Bardet. On a climb like this, it will be hard for Aru to shake his rivals off.
Ben Hermans – should stay in the race lead, but I don’t see him winning another stage.
Weather
There is a slight chance of the wind causing some problems near the climb. Once they get near the climb, the wind is coming from the sea, meaning a nice crosswind. Teams need to be attentive at this point.
Prediction Time
Nathan Haas to take advantage of his rich vein of form.
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