Ben Hermans (BMC) won stage 2 of the Tour of Oman. The Belgian rider crossed the line ahead of Rui Costa (UAE Abu Dhabi) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) to take the overall lead.
Hermans put in a commanding performance on stage 2 of the Tour of Oman to win the first uphill stage of the race and move into the overall lead with four stages remaining.
The 145.5km stage featured four climbs and was the first battle of the General Classification contenders with a short but steep finish on the Al Jissah climb.
It was a battle for a breakaway to go clear in the first hour with the peloton flying at 50km/hr. Two riders, Mark Christian (Aqua Blue Sport) and Preben Van Hecke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), eventually broke away and established an advantage of more than seven minutes.
The peloton began the chase with 60km to go and the catch was made 20km before the finish line, which allowed further attacks to play out.
Only half of the peloton was left as the group approached the finish. Greg Van Avermaet attacked with 1.5km to go, was then overtaken by Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data), attacked again, and then made way for Hermans to make a push for the line and win convincingly ahead of Rui Costa (UAE Abu Dhabi) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team).
Hermans has a four-second lead on the General Classification over Costa and is six seconds ahead of Fuglsang.
Tour of Oman 2017 – stage 2 results (Nakhal – Al Bustan):
| 1 | Ben Hermans (BMC) | 3:20:49 |
| 2 | Rui Costa (UAE Abu Dhabi) | ,, |
| 3 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | ,, |
| 4 | Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data) | +04” |
| 5 | Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 6 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +07” |
| 7 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | ,, |
| 8 | Janier Acevedo (UnitedHealthcare) | ,, |
| 9 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | ,, |
| 10 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) | ,, |
