Sunday 22 February 2015 18:17, UK
Spain’s Rafael Valls completed overall victory of the Tour of Oman as Austria’s Matthias Brandle won the sixth and final stage out of the breakaway.
Brandle, of IAM Cycling, escaped from the peloton early in the day along with Team Sky’s Danny Pate, Etixx – Quick-Step’s Iljo Keisse and Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise’s Jef van Meirhaeghe but then took off on his own in the closing kilometres and won by four seconds.
Keisse finished second, while Van Meirhaeghe and Pate followed a handful of seconds later in third and fourth.
Back down the road, Alejandro Valverde, who started the stage 19 seconds off the overall lead in third place, launched a late attack in a bid to climb up the general classification, but he was reeled back in by the peloton.
That ensured Valls sealed a nine-second overall victory over runner-up Tejay van Garderen, while Valverde had to be content with third place.
It was the first stage-race victory of Valls’ career. His previous best result was third overall at the 2010 Tour de San Luis in Argentina.
Stage six result
1 Matthias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling, 3:02:31
2 lljo Keisse (Bel) Etixx – Quick-Step, +4secs
3 Jef van Meirhaeghe (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, +13
4 Danny Pate (USA) Team Sky, +16
5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, +1:16
6 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, same time
7 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, st
8 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha, st
9 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana, st
10 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18, st
General classification
1 Rafael Valls (Esp) Lampre-Merida, 21:09:31
2 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +9secs
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +19
4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +32
5 Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +1:04
6 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +1:08
7 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, +1:10
8 Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:15
9 Julian Arredondo (Col) Trek Factory Racing, +1:25
10 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Argon 18, +1:36
