Alexander Kristoff scored both his first victory of the 2018 season and his first in UAE Team Emirates’s colours today in the Tour of Oman, on the final stage running 135.5km along the Muscat Corniche.
The European champion has won this stage in the last two seasons, 2016 and 2017 and made it a hat trick today, finishing at the front of around 70 riders, beating Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept Cycling Club), Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana).
A five-man escape dominated the day and Rémi Cavagna (Quick-Step Floors) survived the longest, being reeled in with just 2.5 kilometres left to the finish line. UAE Team Emirates helped get Kristoff into an optimum position for the sprint and the Norwegian finished the job off.
“I’m very happy to have won my first victory with UAE Team Emirates,” said Kristoff. “I feel so much faith from the team and I’ve always had strong men at my side in these first races of the season.
“I enjoy this finish a lot. I won already here in 2016 and 2017, so I knew that today would be an optimum chance to succeed. In the meeting this morning, with the spots directors and team-mates, we were very detailed and studied well every move we’d make in the final. That way, we took on the final kilometres perfectly.
“My team-mates worked impressively, I could not ask more of them. And for me, I had great legs, a spark in my legs, which let me take this beautiful sprint.
“To win is always great, but to do it with a new team, it’s even better. It’s easy to find success in this team given that everything prepared perfectly.”
Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) maintained his 11″ lead over team mate Miguel Angel Lopez to win the race overall with Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain Merida) finishing third.
