Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko clinched overall victory at the Tour of Oman as Norwegian Alexander Kristoff won yesterday’s sixth and final stage.
Kristoff sprinted to victory along the Muscat corniche, a hair ahead of France’s Bryan Coquard and Giamco Nizzolo of Italy in a little over three hours on the 135.5km course.
And the bunch sprint finish meant overnight leader Lutsenko held on to claim overall victory with Astana team-mate Miguel Moreno of Colombia second and Spaniard Gorka Insausti third.
Stage six results
1. Alexander Kristoff (NOR/Emirates) 3hrs, 11min, 29sec, 2. Bryan Coquard (FRA/VC) same time, 3. Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA/Trek-Segafredo) s.t., 4. Magnus Cort Nielsen (DEN/Astana) s.t., 5. Nathan Haas (AUS/Katusha) s.t., 6. Davide Martinelli (ITA/Quick-Step) s.t., 7. Amaury Capiot (BEL/Vlaanderen-Baloise), s.t., 8. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL/BMC) s.t., 9. Benjamin Declercq (BEL/Vlaanderen-Baloise) s.t., 10. Floris Gerts (NED/Roompot-Nederlandse) s.t.
Overall standings
1. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ/Astana) 22hrs, 49min, 50sec, 2. Miguel Moreno (COL/Astana) at 11sec, 3. Gorka Insausti (ESP/Bahrain-Merida) 28, 4. Jesus Lopez (ESP/Cofidis) 30, 5. Nathan Haas (AUS/Katusha) 32, 6. Dries Devenyns (BEL/Quick-Step) 1:05, 7. Daniel Garcia (ESP/Cofidis) 1:14, 8. Odd Eiking (NOR/Wanty) 1:24, 9. Merhawi Ghebremedhin (ERI/Dimension Data) 1:29, 10. Rui Costa (POR/Emirates) 1:37.
Froome finishes 10th as Wellens wins Ruta del Sol
Chris Froome finished in 10th place at the Ruta del Sol on his return to racing, as Belgium’s Tim Wellens claimed overall victory in southern Spain yesterday. Froome has dominated the attention on the event in Andalusia, as the Team Sky rider competes for the first time since the revelation of his abnormal doping test at last year’s Vuelta a Espana. But the four-time Tour de France winner only just scraped into the top 10 after the final stage, a 14.2km individual time-trial around Barbate, near Cadiz.
Froome’s Sky team-mate David de la Cruz of Spain won the stage in a time of 17min 11sec, while the 32-year-old Briton was 11th on the day after finishing 27sec adrift. Froome, whose general classification hopes were ended by a puncture on Saturday’s penultimate stage, ended 1min 57sec behind overall winner Wellens, of the Lotto-Soudal team. Another of Froome’s Sky colleagues, Dutchman Wout Poels, came second overall. With cycling’s governing body, the UCI, yet to rule on the doping case, Froome is set to continue his season at next month’s week-long Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy.
Ruta del Sol standings
Fifth and final stage: 1. David de la Cruz (ESP/Sky) 17:11, 2. Andrey Amador (CRC/Movistar) at 0:06, 3. Stef Clement (NED/LottoNL-Jumbo) at 7sec, 4. Alexis Gougeard (FRA/AG2R-La Mondiale) at 8sec, 5. Marc Soler (ESP/Movistar) at 9sec
Overall: 1. Tim Wellens (BEL/Lotto-Soudal) 17:41:50, 2. Wout Poels (NED/Sky) at 0:08, 3. Marc Soler (ESP/Movistar) at 27sec, 4. Jakob Fuglsang (DEN/Astana) at 30sec, 5. Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP/Astana) same time.
Kazakh rider Alexey Lutsenko (centre) of the Astana Pro Team celebrates on the podium with his Colombian teammate and runner-up Miguel Angel Lopez (left) and third place Gorka Izagirre of the Bahrain Merida team after the sixth and last stage between Al Mouj Muscat and Matrah Corniche in Muscat yesterday. (AFP)
