Chris Froome (Sky) was well-positioned near the front when the peloton split in the crosswinds in today's opening stage of the Tour of Oman. The defending champion finished safely in the bunch while the team's sprinter Ben Swift got boxed in and never got the chance to sprint.

Team Sky came through the opening day at the Tour of Oman without issue despite cross-winds threatening to tear the race apart late on. The 164.5-kilometre run to Naseem Garden looked like being a straightforward sprint stage, but as the race hit the coast the peloton began to split, causing a few nervous moments in the pack.

There was no issue for Chris Froome who returned to competitive action, the 28-year-old finishing safely in the main pack with his team-mates as things came back together for a bunch sprint won by Andre Greipel. The Lotto Belisol sprinter had been one of a number of riders caught out by the strong gusts, and his team were forced to chase back on from a second group which also contained Team Sky sprinter Ben Swift.

With Swift’s path to the line blocked until the last moment, Greipel rebounded to claim his fourth win of the season, beating Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge) into second and Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani-CSF) into third. The result places the German at the top of the general classification by four seconds. Swift crossed the line 13th, with Dario Cataldo (17th) and Froome (24th) the next Team Sky riders home, all now 10 seconds behind Greipel.

 “I made a little bit of a mistake there so I had to come back,” Swift said, describing the situation when he was caught in the second group. “I was with Greipel at that point. Once we got back I was following the Cannondale train. That was relatively easy as a lot of people were concentrating on Quick-Step and Lotto. I had a relatively smooth run-in, then in the last kilometre-and-a-half I got a bit blocked. I should have used Dario (Cataldo) a lot more and I will do tomorrow.

“I didn’t really open up the sprint in the end and rolled in. It’s about trying to reach that next level now. It’s a bit frustrating as by the time I got out of the boxed position there was only 50m to go.

“The rest of the guys got in fine. It all went pretty smoothly and we’re looking forward to tomorrow now.”

Back at the hotel Sports Director Nicolas Portal was happy to see everyone come through the day, and explained how the cross-winds began.

“Everybody finished together with the same time,” he confirmed. “With about 20km to go ahead of the last sprint bonification there was a bit of a cross-wind and the bunch was split in three groups.

“It was tough because the road turned right and there was a big speed bump – so quite a lot of riders had to brake and slow right down. It was a fairly light cross-wind just after but enough to split the race into three groups. We didn’t have much information ourselves, but then heading into the final 10km to go it all came back together for the sprint.

“Swifty was disappointed because he was in a good position and couldn’t really start his sprint. He was feeling really good so that should bode well for tomorrow. The rest of the guys were all riding well and are ready to go.”

The race continues with a 139km stage that is expected to again finish in a bunch sprint. You can read our preview of the race here.