Sam Bennett has rounded out the Tour of Oman with his best result of the race, which hopefully bodes well for the coming weeks.
Sam Bennett ended the Tour of Oman with his best result of the race; taking 5th in the bunch sprint that settled the 130.5km stage 6 from The Wave Muscat to Matrah Corniche on Sunday.
The charge to the line was won by Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) from Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin), Søren Kragh Andersen (Giant-Alpecin) and Tom Van Asbroeck (LottoNl-Jumbo).
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) was the outright winner, taking the race by 15 seconds from Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) with Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) in 3rd a further nine seconds back.
Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) was best of the two Irish riders in the race, finishing in 27th place 6:53 down.
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It was a disappointing week for him especially after taking a stage win at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in Spain 2½ weeks ago.
However, while Bennett was hoping to open his account for 2016 in Qatar or Oman and failed to do so, there were a number of positives.
Last year the Carrick-on-Suir man won the final stage of the Tour of Qatar having been 5th on stage 1.
But he otherwise lost a lot of time and was far from the action that decided the other stages; finishing 79th overall.
He then went on to the Tour of Oman and took 8th on stage 1 and 10th on stage 6 and finished 134th overall.
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This time around his performances in Qatar were much more consistent and suggest he has emerged from the off-season in great shape.
In Qatar he was in the top 10 three times – 4th on stage 1 and stage 4 and 6th on stage 5.
But he made all the key splits and put in a strong stage 3 time trial to finish 7th overall; a result he would not have been capable of last year.
He said a number of times last season that while he was sprinting well, the rest of his game required work and that he needed to get generally stronger.
And while Oman did not go according to plan, his 5th place on the final stages suggests he has emerged from the race with his form in one piece for the weeks ahead.
Stage 6: Wave Muscat-Matrah Corniche (130.5km)
1 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 3:01:18
2 Zico Waeytens (Bel) Team Giant-Alpecin
3 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Giant-Alpecin
4 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
5 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18
6 Roy Jans (Bel) Wanty - Groupe Gobert
7 Amaury Capiot (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
8 Marko Kump (Slo) Lampre - Merida
9 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data
10 Marco Canola (Ita) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
71 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step
Final General Classification
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 22:25:25
2 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:15
3 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:24
4 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:40
5 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre - Merida 0:00:54
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 0:01:06
7 Brendan Canty (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling 0:01:31
8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:38
9 Merhawi Kudus (Eri) Dimension Data 0:01:56
10 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:01:59
27 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:06:53
91 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 0:31:51
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