Danny Pate takes fourth place on last stage of Tour of Oman
Last Updated: 22/02/15 4:47pm
Danny Pate just misses out on his first Team Sky podium on the final stage of the Tour of Oman.
Danny Pate just missed out on his first Team Sky podium by battling to fourth place on the final stage of the Tour of Oman.
Pate worked intelligently to infiltrate a four-man breakaway and their hard riding saw them evade their pursuers and duke it out for the victory.
It was Matthias Brändle who emerged triumphant, with the IAM Cycling rider jumping clear in the closing stages and wrapping up his win with a four-second advantage over Iljo Keisse (Etixx – Quick-Step). Jef van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen) - the race’s most aggressive rider - rounded out the top three to deny Pate a maiden top-three finish.
Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) led home the peloton 1min 16sec behind Brändle, and Rafael Valls’ presence in that main group ensured the Lampre-Merida rider took the overall title with a nine-second winning margin over Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing).
On the attack
Pate’s group went on the attack just 8.5km into the 133km trek from Oman Air to the Matrah Corniche, and the pace they set meant Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen) was unsuccessful in his attempt to bridge over.
Indeed, the quartet worked so well together that their lead ballooned to over nine minutes, and with no-one a threat on the general classification, Lampre-Merida seemed content to let them have their day in the sun.
Tinkoff-Saxo and Katusha eventually mounted a chase, but it proved too little too late and the foursome survived to contest an unexpected conclusion. It was Brändle who dealt the decisive blow, and the Austrian picked his moment perfectly to attack and claim his first win of the season.
After the stage, Sports Director Nicolas Portal praised Pate’s efforts and reflected on an encouraging week in the saddle.
He told TeamSky.com: “We had planned to go on the attack today and Danny rode a really strong race. He launched an attack on the last climb to try and distance the others, but they caught him on the descent which followed and he didn’t have anything left in the tank when Brändle made his move.
“Before that happened the action had been full gas behind. BMC Racing and Movistar rode hard to split things up on first climb and Philip [Deignan] was in a group of around 20-30 riders over the top. Those groups came back together but they couldn’t catch Danny and the others.
“It’s been a good week for us in terms of our training for future races. Wout[Poels] finished 15th on GC and our domestiques have been really strong. Everything’s looking good and we’re where we need to be at this stage in the season.”
