After several near-misses in the Dubai Tour and Tour of Qatar, Andrea Guardini (Astana) finally took his first win of the 2015 season when he won the bunch sprint on the opening day of the Tour of Oman. After a straightforward stage that had been firmly controlled by Alexander Kristoff’s Katusha team, he beat Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) and Matteo Pelucchi (IAM) in the bunch sprint to become the first leader of the 6-day race.

In his first 10 days of racing, Andrea Guardini had already finished second three times and third once when he took to the start line of the final of the Middle Eastern races at the Tour of Oman. The Astana riders again faced a stellar line-up of sprinters but he was keen to finally break his drought and get the 2015 ball rolling.

Today his hard efforts and great condition finally paid off when he won the flat opening stage of the 6-day race. Despite a slightly uphill finishing straight, there was no one stopping the fast Italian who held off Tom Boonen and Matteo Pelucchi in the bunch sprint to take the first win since last year’s Eneco Tour.

The sprint came after a very hot day in the Omain desert where Alexander Kristoff’s Katusha team worked hard to control a four-rider breakaway that got a maximum advantage of 5 minutes. Johann van Zyl (MTN-Qhubeka) tried to go solo in the feed zone but he had no chance against the Russian team and with 30km to go, it was all back together for a bunch sprint.

Katusha remained in control in the final kilometres while Kristoff’s rivals positioned themselves behind their train. In the end, there was no fourth win for the Norwegian who could only manage fourth in the bunch sprint.

With the win, Guardini is of course also the first leader of the race and he goes into tomorrow’s second stage with a 4-second advantage over Boonen. However, it will be no easy task for him to defend his lead as the mostly flat stage has two difficult climbs in the finale. The final one summits just 4km from the line, meaning that only the strongest sprinters will be left in contention on a stage that was won by Andre Greipel in 2014 and by Peter Sagan in 2013.

One for the sprinters

As it has become tradition, the 6th Tour of Oman kicked off with a stage that seemed to be one for the sprinters. The riders travelled over 161km from Bayt al Naman Castle to Al Wutayyah on a course that had no categorized climbs and very little elevation differences. In the final, the riders rolled along a big road close to the coast where crosswind could play a role before they hit the flat finale that ended with a short 500m rise to the finish.

One rider was absent at the start as Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) was suffering from stomach problems and so never got the chance to show off his new  BMC colours. The remaining riders left the castle under a beautiful sunny sky and with a temperature of nearly 35 degrees, it was a brutally hot day.

Four riders take off

With all set for a sprint finish, there was no big battle to join the early break. In fact, Jef van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani), Johann Van Zyl (MTN-Qhubeka) and Philip Konrad (Bora-Argon 18) escaped as soon as the flag had been dropped and after 10km of racing, they already had an advantage of 3 minutes.

When the gap reached 5 minutes and Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) easily rejoined the bunch after a puncture, Trek started to control the situation. They got some assistance from Movistar and Katusha and those three teams had kept the gap at the same level at the 32km mark.

Katusha lead the chase

Katusha now started to accelerate and after the riders had covered 40.2km in the first hour, Konrad beat van Meirhaeghe and Andreetta in the first intermediate sprint. At this point, the gap had come down to 3.55.

Katusha continued to ride on the front at kept the gap at around 3 minutes. Meanwhile, the break started to split up as van Zyl launched a solo attack when the group passed through the feed zone.

Van Zyl increases his advantage

While the South African extended his advantage to 4 minutes, van Meirhaeghe tried to bridge the gap but the young Belgian failed. Instead, the three chasers lost ground and they were quickly 35 seconds behind.

When van Zyl won the final intermediate sprint ahead of Konrad and van Meirhaeghe, the gap was already 1.20 and when Konrad even suffered a puncture, the three chasers threw in the towel. At the 95km, van Zyl was the only surviving escapee and he still had a 3-minute advantage.

The break is caught

The peloton was now chasing harder and so the gap came down. With 45km to go, it was 2.15, with 45km to go, it was 1.45 and when he entered the final 35km, he only had 35 seconds in hand.

With 30km to go, it was all over for van Zyl and all was now set for a bunch sprint. Katusha kept the speed high but as they entered the final 10km of the race, the fight for position had intensified and Lampre-Merida and Tinkoff-Saxo were now also visible in the front positions. In the end, the work didn’t pay off for any of those teams as it was Guardini who took the win.