Alexander Kristoff sprints to victory on Tour of Oman stage three
Thursday 19 February 2015 17:40, UK
Alexander Kristoff continued his fine start to the season with victory in the third stage of the Tour of Oman.
The Katusha rider came out on top in a bunch finish to the relatively flat 158.5km stage that started and finished at the Al Mussanah Sports City.
Stage one winner Andrea Guardini finished second for Astana, with IAM Cycling sprinter Matteo Pelucchi taking third place.
The result had little effect on the overall standings, wtih Fabian Cancellara holding on to his four-second lead over Alejandro Valverde ahead of Friday's vital stage, which finishes with the tough climb of Green Mountain.
'Perfect sprint'
He said: "I was in the wheel of Danny van Poppel with 300m to go but I waited till the last 100m to go full gas. It was a perfect sprint. The lead-out was like it has to be."
Most of the stage was dominated by a three-man break involving Alessandro Tonelli, of Bardiani-CSF, and Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise pair Preben van Hecke and Jef van Meirhaeghe, but there were always enough teams forcing the pace in the peloton that a sprint finish was inevitable.
And it was Kristoff, who won three stages at the Tour of Qatar last week, who came out on top by around half a wheel from Guardini, whose burst came just too late to add to his Monday victory.
Team Sky's seven-man squad all finished in the leading bunch, led home by Wout Poels in 18th place.
Stage three result
1 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha, 3:56.42
2 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana, same time
3 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) IAM Cycling, st
4 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, st
5 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Trek Factory Racing, st
6 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
7 Matti Breschel (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
8 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned), Giant-Alpecin st
9 Adam Blythe (Gbr) Orica-GreenEdge, st
10 Tom Boonen (Bel) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
General classification
1 Fabian Cancellara (Sui) Trek Factory Racing, 12:18.56
2 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +4secs
3 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Argon 18, +5
4 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, +6
5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, +10
6 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing, same time
7 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, st
8 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana, st
9 Rafael Valls (Esp) Lampre-Merida, st
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, st
