The tough uphill finish at yesterday's stage of Tour of Oman was made even more challenging for some of the best riders when their path was blocked by a flying advertising hoarding.
Just seconds after Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) sprinted in to win stage 3 on Jabal Hatt, it appears the helicopter was flying too low and whipped the advertising hoarding at speed across the road. It blocked the path of the next riders just behind the front group, much to their frustration as race staff ran out to try and rescue the situation.
However, 10 riders were delayed by the advertising hoarding blocking the road and all of them had 20 seconds taken off their stage time for the overall in a bid to cancel out the impact of the delay.
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Luckily no riders were hit by the hoarding, but it was a near miss. Had it happened a few seconds earlier, or later, it would have taken out some of the riders in the lead group or those finishing just outside the top 10, including Carlos Verona (Movistar Team) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan).
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American rider Jorgenson was untroubled by the incident as he sprinted in to take his first pro win with a great finishing effort. He took the victory by two seconds from Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), with Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) placing 3rd at three seconds.
With two stages remaining, Jorgenson leads overall by six seconds from Vansevenant with Bouchard in 3rd at 14 seconds. Irish rider Jesse Ewart is holding his own; the Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team rider in 46th overall, of 121 riders, at 4:31.
