Irish rider Nicolas Roche was to the fore on the summit finish of Green Mountain; putting in a final climbing effort that suggests his form is very good indeed already this year.
Nicolas Roche very strong on Oman Green Mountain finish
Usually a man who requires months of racing to get whipped into shape, Nicolas Roche has shown some very good early form at the Tour of Oman today.
The stage finished atop Green Mountain; a testing climb that always puts shape on the general classification.
And with Roche’s BMC Racing team mate and race leader Greg Van Avermaet falling by the wayside somewhat, the Irish rider fared much better.
He took a top 10 placing in the Astana-dominated finale; a very solid result on a day when the final 5.7km climb decimated the field.
An early breakaway of six men would spring from the peloton shortly after the start of the 152km stage.
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The last of those was only caught on the climb up to the finish. But it always looked as if the winner would come from behind.
And so it came to pass; Astana duo Miguel Angel Lopez and Alexey Lutsenko (below) riding to a 1-2. And that meant Lutsenko took the race lead with just one stage remaining.
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They hit the afterburners in the final kilometre after some very strong work by their team on the front. The nearest man to them at the finish, Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), was 12 seconds down.
Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) made a serious effort to move with the Astana duo when they went. But he was unable to follow. He finished in 4th place on the day, some 15 seconds back.
Izagirre was initially with the eventual winner and runner-up, along with their team mate Jan Hirt. And behind them came a group of about 15 men.
Nicolas Roche was in there and he initially hit the front in a bid to peg back the four who were riding clear.
However, he was powerless when the four-man group split and Astana's two strongmen rode to victory and the race lead.
Signs are good so early in campaign
In the end Nicolas Roche had to be content with 9th place; crossing the line 47 seconds down. Van Avermaet was 22nd at 2:20 and so relinquished his race lead. But he keeps the points jersey.
For Roche, his performance today suggested he is in very good condition after the winter. He raced until October last year and told stickybottle recently his off-season felt very short as a result.
But that seems to have played to his advantage so far. Some very good form late last season saw him take 3rd overall in the Tour of Guangxi WorldTour stage race in October.
And after such a short break from racing those legs appear to have followed him into the new campaign.
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