André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) confirmed his position as the dominant sprinter in the Tour of Oman when he took his third win in the 6-day race on the final day in the Omani capital of Muscat. Having used his team to reel in a strong trio with just 1km to go, he again made an impressive sprint to hold off Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and Sam Bennett (NetApp-Endura) while Chris Froome (Sky) finished safely in the bunch to take home the overall win ahead of Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

André Greipel has been the man to beat in the Tour of Oman bunch sprint and today he again underlined his superiority when he won the final stage that finished on a flat circuit at the Matrah Corniche in the capital of Muscat. The German was again well-supported by his teammates and held off last year's winner of the stage, Nacer Bouhanni, and Sam Bennett in the final dash to the line.

Greipel suffered a mechanical in the sprint on stage 2 but otherwise the German has been unbeatable in the Omani sprints. He won the opening stage ahead of Leigh Howard and he took a very convincing sprint win in the hilly third stage before underlining his position in today's sprint.

Despite the flat finish to the stage, however, it was not a given thing that it would all come down to a bunch sprint. A very aggressive peloton saw no less than 3 different breakaways dominate the day's proceedings as there were always teams who were discontent with the riders up the road.

Finally, Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEDGE), Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthCare) and Christopher Juul Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) got clear to form the third and final break and the peloton had a hard time catching them after the fast start to the stage. Just 1km from the finish, the trio were back in the fold, opening the door for Greipel to take his third win in the race.

Chris Froome finished safely in the bunch and so defended the overall win he took in 2013 when the Omani race was his first stage race win as a professional. Tejay van Garderen and Rigoberto Uran completed the podium after having finished in the same positions in yesterday's queen stage to the Green Mountain.

With the Tour of Oman over, the triptych of races in the Middle East have come to an end and the racing now again returns to Europe, with the stage race riders preparing for the Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico and the classics riders focusing on the opening weekend in Belgium next week.

A mixed stage

The Tour of Oman came to an end with a 146.5km stage from As Sifah to Matrah Corniche that had a bit of everything. The first part was rolling and set the riders up the Al Jissah and Bousher Alamrat climbs that they had already done in stages 3 and 4 respectively but the second half was mostly flat. The stage ended with two laps of a 7.5km finishing circuit at the beautiful Matrah Corniche, with only a very small bump to challenge the sprinters.

With the stage being the final chance to take a win in this year's race and the hilly start making a successful breakaway a realistic possibility, the race was off to a very fast and animated start. Several attacks were launched but for a long time no one was able to get away.

The first break is formed

At the 17km mark, 5 riders finally succeeded in creating a gap as Francesco Gavazzi (Astana), Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), and Pim Ligthart (Lotto Belisol) took off. The very strong group started to open a gap while the peloton took a short breather after the hectic start of the race.

At the top of the Al Jissah climb after 31km of racing, Ligthart crossed the line in first position and at that point, the escapees enjoyed their maximum lead of 1.35 However, Orica-GreenEDGE were unhappy to have missed the move and the Australian team started to chase hard, bringing the gap down to just 28 seconds at the 38km mark.

A new break is formed

The gap stayed around the 30-second mark for another 10km but the peloton finally won the battle. As the break was about to get caught, Terpstra launched an attack on his own, crossing the line at the first intermediate sprint in first position while his former companions were all caught.

More attacks got launched from the peloton and 9 riders bridged across to Terpstra to form a strong 10-rider group. Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Gert Dockx (Lotto Belisol), Sebastien Minard (Ag2r), Jos van Emden (Belkin), Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo), Michael Albasini, Michael Hepburn (both Orica-GreenEDGE) and Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthCare) joined Terpstra and started to reopen the gap.

The third break is formed

After 60km of racing, the group was 1.05 ahead of the peloton and by the time they reached the bottom of the Bousher Alamrat climb at the 68km mark, they had extended their advantage to 2 minutes. However, the peloton was still not content with the situation and set a furious pace on the steep slopes.

This spelled the end for the breakaway shortly after the top and instead new attacks were launched from the peloton. Hepburn and Bazzana who had been part of the earlier move, refused to give up, and they again went up the road, this time joined by Christopher Juul Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo).

The peloton starts to reel in the escapees

After 86km of racing, the trio were 38 seconds ahead and they were allowed to open it a bit further to 1.30 8km further up the road. With the riders now having reached the flat part of the stage and a manageable 3-rider break up the road, however, the race was now controllable for the sprint teams who stabilized the gap at around that mark.

The peloton gradually upped the pace and 33km from the finish, the front trio were only 45 seconds ahead. The trio managed to respond to the acceleration, stabilizing the gap and entering the capital of Muscat with a similar advantage.

A late catch

Bazzana won the final intermediate sprint at the first passage of the finish line by which time the gap had been reduced to 26 seconds. However, the front trio did an impressive job and when they had finished their first lap of the circuit, they were still 18 seconds ahead, with 7.5km to go.

5km from the finish they were still 20 seconds clear but the peloton was now going full gas. Despite their best efforts, the escapees were swallowed up as they passed the flamme rouge, setting the scene for a big bunch sprint. In the end, there was no surprise as André Greipel again emerged as the fastest in the final dash to the line.