Magnus Cort wins stage 4 of Tour of Oman

Magnus Cort took his first victory in Astana colors after he outsprinted Giovanni Visconti and Alberto Bettiol on stage 4 of the Tour of Oman.

The road rose from KM 0 on stage 4 with riders battling it out on the short opening climb before a group of six eventually went clear and extended up an advantage over the rest of the field.

Behind the breakaway, BMC was setting the pace and, after 23km of racing, the gap stabilized at around two minutes.

With the first two categorized climbs of the day complete, the  peloton began to pick up the pace, and as the race headed towards the first of three ascents of the Bousher Al Amerat climb, the leaders’ advantage was down to only one minute.

The breakaway was falling apart on the second ascent of the climb and, with the gap now just 20 seconds, Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) attacked from the bunch to join lone leader, Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Team Dimension Data), with 25km remaining.

As the summit grew nearer, a flurry of attacks saw a group of around 25 riders, which still included Van Avermaet, drawn out at the front of the race as a fast and furious 13.5km run into the finish line began.

In the end, it was Magnus Cort who took the day’s honors on the line with Bettiol and Van Avermaet, who maintained his overall lead of the General Classification, powering to third and fourth place respectively.

Tour of Oman 2018 – stage 4 results (Yiti – Ministry of Tourism):

General classification after stage 4: