Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) opened his 2014 account when he won the headwind sprint in the second stage of the Tour of Oman while Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) used another 2nd place to take over the leader's jersey. We have already posted several reactions and have gathered a few more below.

Evan Huffman (Astana, 82nd s.t.)

“It’s warmer with a tailwind, because you’re going with the breeze – but when we turned around there was a headwind and it was cooler – it’s still pretty hot for February, but it’s not Australia out there.”

Kim Anderson (sports director Trek whose best rider was Yaroslav Popovych in 29th)

“No stress, no problems today. We all finished safely in the bunch. We are looking ahead to the hilly stages since we have no sprinter to support. The goal today was to stay out of trouble. Tomorrow will be different. The GC battle starts tomorrow with a few bumps near the end of the stage. We saw last year with [Peter] Sagan what happened, so we will have to be attentive and ready.”

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC, 50th s.t.)

"It was windy, but most of the time a tailwind or a headwind. It was a pretty easy day again. In the final, it was a bit crazy with the headwind to the finish. But we tried to protect Peter Velits and Tejay van Garderen, so everything went well. From tomorrow on, a hard Tour of Oman gets started with a nice stage for me and Philippe Gilbert. Then there is a mountain stage and the stage on Green Mountain, so that's three stages we can look forward to and get some nice results." 

Valerio Piva (sports director BMC whose best rider was Marcus Burghardt in 8th)

"It was windy, but most of the time a tailwind or a headwind. It was a pretty easy day again. In the final, it was a bit crazy with the headwind to the finish. But we tried to protect Peter Velits and Tejay van Garderen, so everything went well. From tomorrow on, a hard Tour of Oman gets started with a nice stage for me and Philippe Gilbert. Then there is a mountain stage and the stage on Green Mountain, so that's three stages we can look forward to and get some nice results." 

Lars Michaelsen (sports director Tinkoff-Saxo whose best rider was Daniele Bennati in 23rd)

“A breakaway trio launched their attack straight from the sound of the gun and created a gap of more than 7 minutes. We decided to help the sprinter teams reeling them back in and with 9 kilometers remaining, we succeeded in doing so. Our boys finished safely in the bunch with no time losses."

Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ, 5th s.t.)

"I was in the right-hand side of the bunch. You had to be in the left-hand side to be in the game in the sprint. With Sebastien Chavanel, I still have some adjustments to but it is normal. It will come over the days."

Andreas Schillinger (NetApp-Endura, 119th s.t.)

"The day began with some terrible news. Kristoff Godaert died yesterday while training in Antwerp. It was only last week that he was competing with us at the Tour of Qatar. All of us here are saddened by the news, and our thoughts are with his family and his friends. His team, IAM, also had a difficult time of it today. The mood was very somber the whole day. After a minute’s silence at the starting line in Al Bustan, we all began the race very subdued.

"Then, after a few kilometers, finally three riders took off without any real resistance from the field. They increased their lead up to more than seven minutes. There was a difference of opinion in the peloton as to who should close the gap, until all the sprint strongholds like Saxo, Lotto and Omega, decided to work together to reduce the lead.

"Most of the race traveled in a southeasterly direction, initially passing by the town where the race would eventually finish. After 120 kilometers, we turned around to make our way back. As a result, the final part of the race was characterized by a headwind. After the lead group was caught with just 10 kilometers to go, all of the sprint teams, including ourselves, knew that they would have to get into the front positions from then on in order to be in on the final part of the race. With five kilometers to go, Bartosz moved out into the lead in front of the field and brought us up to the 3,000-meter mark, thanks to his strong performance. I took over then in order to keep Zak (Dempster) and Sam (Bennett) in position. I turned it over to Zak at the 2,000-meter mark and then had to fall back. The field was quite dense due to the headwind, and Sam crossed the finish in 10th place. Better than yesterday, but still with some room for improvement was how we summed it up. Alexander Kristoff claimed victory, with Leigh Howard and Tom Boonen taking second and third place, respectively.

"After the race, we had to travel about 110 kilometers by car, which ended in an Oman sightseeing tour. We took a “shortcut” to the hotel. The street, or rather the gravel path, led through a beautiful valley, which apparently must have been filled with water ages ago. Left and right, between rather high rock walls, it seemed as if time had stood still for a hundred years in the villages that we passed. It was really impressive and showed us that “shortcuts,” which perhaps really weren’t shortcuts, have their good side."

Enrico Poitschke (sports director NetApp-Endura whose best rider was Sam Bennett in 10th)

“The final kilometers went very well today. The team was able to keep Sam out of the wind up until 350 meters before the finish line. Even so, the strong headwind took its toll on Sam and kept him from sprinting for a spot on the podium. Things are slowly starting to come together and our guys are getting more confident and more experienced."

Roberto Reverberi (sports director Bardiani whose best rider was Nicola Ruffoni in 6th)

”It was another positive day for us. A good result in the bunch sprint with Ruffoni who repeated after yesterday [when he was 3rd], and a long breakaway. Colonnawas  in the break of the day and was caught isideo the last 20km. Now we’re looking to tomorrow, a different kind of stage. It won’t be easy but we want to continue in this way."

Roberto Damiani (sports director UnitedHealthCare whose best rider was Robert Förster in 4th)

“We had a very productive team meeting last night and set clear objectives on how to improve upon our stage 1 performance. Today, I saw a very determined team execute our goals- we were present in the breakaway and worked very well together in the final sprint, delivering Robert just off the podium.”