Nicolas Roche - third in line of the yellow-clad Tinkoff-Saxo riders - is climbing quite well for a man who is just coming back from injury and is in his first race of the season.
Nicolas Roche continued his return from injury with another solid display at the Tour of Oman today, putting in some hard efforts for teammate Roman Kreuziger on the final climbs before crossing the line 46 seconds down on stage 4 winner Peter Sagan of Cannondale.
An early break containing Belgian duo Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Evan Huffman (Astana) and Yaroslav Popovych of Trek gained six minutes at one point during the 173km leg from Wadi Al Abiyad to Boshar. But with four climbs of Bousher Alamrat on the finishing circuits, Van Avermaet was the only one left out front on the approach to the ascent the final time.
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With the chase being led by Team Sky, defending champion Chris Froome jumped clear, taking maximum points at the summit but was caught and passed by former teammate Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma Quickstep), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Sagan on the descent to the finish.
A wrong turn at the last roundabout forced Sagan to jump the kerb to correct his line but the Slovakian held on for his first victory of the season with Uran second and Nibali leading home the baying peloton for third.
Roche finished in the second group on the road, alongside seven others, 46 seconds back, while Sam Bennett finished in a large group some 21 minutes down on the stage winner.
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"Things are going okay," Roche said of his recovery from a recent knee injury today.
"I don't have great form at the moment but I'm getting there slowly but surely."
Sagan now leads the race by 10 seconds from Uran with Nibali third at 14 second while Roche has Tinkoff Saxo teammate Kreuziger in seventh place, 18 seconds back.
Bennett has NetApp Endura leader Leopold Koenig in 15th place on the same time as the race heads towards tomorrow’s conclusive stage and the summit finish at Green Mountain.
The racing saw big splits at the Tour of Oman today as the riders tackled more undulating terrain.
Sam Bennett's NetApp-Endura squad have a group worry before the start of today's stage 4
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