Nathan Haas moves into Tour of Oman lead with stage two victory

Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) won stage two of the Tour of Oman, surviving four climbs to take the final sprint. 

A group of 16 riders finished ahead of the main peloton with Greg Van Avermaet finishing second and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) third.

On the last climb of Al Jissah, the final survivor of an early break of four riders was caught. The climbs had whittled down the peloton to 16 riders and Haas sprinted into the overall lead.

“Today my team was just amazing. It was the first time in a long time that I just had to sit and not to think. They guided me to where I got to do my thing”, said Nathan Haas.

“Last year I was already fifth in this stage when we finished at the top. Today there was a different kind of speed. I decided to lock onto the wheels and just forget about the next part, which was the sprint. So there were two finish lines: the top and then down the hill. I did some research to watch the race. I’ve realized I’m not one of the phenomenons of cycling, so I have to be a little bit smarter or to be just more prepared. I knew I actually had to come a little bit from the back in the sprint. I’ve put a little bit of Fabian Cancellara’s earlier work into what I did today”.

The 2018 Tour of Oman continues on Thursday with stage three, from German University of Technology to Wadi Dayqah Dam covering 179.5 kilometres – the longest 2018 stage. On Friday the race finishes on Green Mountain. The race concludes on Sunday.

Tour of Oman 2018 – stage 2 results (Sultan Qaboos University – Al Bustan):

General classification after stage 2: