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Double victory for XDS Astana Team at the Tour of Oman

  • Ron 

The prestigious Tour of Oman concluded with a complete triumph for XDS Team. On the final stage featuring the iconic climb of Green Mountain, claimed a brilliant victory, while his teammate Cristián Rodríguez secured second place. These results delivered a one-two overall success for XDS Astana Team in the General Classification: Scaroni won the Tour of Oman, and Rodríguez finished as runner-up.

In addition, Christian Scaroni claimed the in the points classification, while XDS Astana Team won the team classification.

“The plan was very simple: reach the final climb without any problems and then see how the legs would feel and whether there would be enough left for the finale. Diego Ulissi stayed with me all day, protecting me from the wind and helping with positioning. Cristián Rodríguez gave me huge support at the only difficult moment on the climb, about one and a half kilometers from the finish. After Yates attacked, I found myself behind and couldn’t respond immediately, and Cristián helped me get back to the group of leaders. In the final kilometer, I tried to pace myself as well as possible, waited for to start his sprint, followed him, and then launched my own sprint. I want to thank the whole team for the phenomenal support throughout the week and especially today. And once again, thanks to Diego Ulissi as his help in the wind was invaluable”, – said Christian Scaroni.

“To be honest, I’m very happy with what we achieved. We came here aiming to fight for the overall victory, and today we won. I’m also pleased to have strong again, to regain my form and confidence – I really needed that. Being at the front on the decisive stage of such a high-level race is important for me. It was great to help Christian Scaroni take the win here, and I’m very happy to have delivered a strong result myself. What happened today is something incredible – it doesn’t happen every day”, – said Cristián Rodríguez.

“The whole team performed at a very high level today. On the one hand, everything went very well for us in this race; on the other, we certainly missed Alberto Bettiol on the flat stages – he was in very good shape but unfortunately fell ill. Nevertheless, the rest of the guys gave 100%. We executed the final climb exactly as planned, managing our effort well throughout. We have experience winning on this climb: this is already our fourth success at the Tour of Oman. We knew Adam Yates would be the main favorite and that he would attack, so Cristián Rodríguez closely followed his moves and supported our leader. Christian Scaroni, in turn, distributed his effort perfectly and managed to stay at the front going into the final kilometer. After that, it was his territory – he delivered the decisive and winning acceleration. It is especially pleasing that after such an intense week we also won the team classification – today’s success belongs to the entire team”, – added , of XDS Astana Team.

Third for Adam Yates

Finishing in fourth place on the final stage, Adam Yates secured his spot in third overall at the end of the five-day race. Twice a winner of the event, Yates has now finished on the final podium for three successive seasons, underlining his pedigree as one of the peloton’s most consistent climbers.

The British rider had to use all of his ability on stage 5’s finish, with the route taking the riders up the Green Mountain, where the final honours were decided. It was here that the UAE Team Emirates-XRG man rode with trademark persistence to keep in touch with the head of the race, despite suffering a fall earlier in the week.

For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the Tour of Oman has proved a successful edition, with Yates tuning up the band for his bigger targets later in the spring, and Colombian sprinter Sebastián Molano looking back to his best. A stage win came Molano’s way on the opening day, and he almost added to his tally on stage 4.

Looking back on his week in the Middle East, Yates was content with his and his team’s efforts across the five days.

“We were so far down [in the GC] after stage 3, with the crash, we just had to go full gas,” Yates said after the stage. “We lost a lot of guys through sickness and injuries, so we did not have many options. We only had Pablo on the climb, and he is fighting through his own little injury, so he did the best he could for the lead-out.

“I had to go earlier than I had liked. Maybe in hindsight it was the wrong decision to go early but I needed to push and to test everybody and see how everybody was.

“The climb today was super hard, especially with the hot weather. I think the last two years were a little bit cooler, but today was a scorcher.

“I had nothing to lose today, I was more interested in taking the GC than going for the stage, so I was hoping if I kept pushing, pushing, pushing, I would crack everybody. But today there were a few guys stronger than me and sometimes that is how it is. We can say we tried, we pulled all day through Rune [Herregodts] and [Sebastiá] Molano, so we put everything into today, and the result is the result.”

Stage 5 Brief Results:

  1. Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team) 3:23:19
  2. Cristián Rodríguez (XDS Astana Team) +3″
  3. Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) +6″
  4. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) s.t

Final General Classification:

  1. Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team) 19:33:16
  2. Cristián Rodríguez (XDS Astana Team) +24″
  3. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +44″

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Tags: Adam Yates, Alberto Bettiol, Astana, Back, Christian Scaroni, Cristián Rodríguez, Diego Ulissi, Dmitriy Fofonov, Felt, General classification, Hand, Summit, The Peloton, Tour of Oman, UAE Team Emirates, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, climbers, climbing, green jersey, jersey, mountain, peloton, sports, sports director, stage race
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