Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka) sprinted to victory at the end of the 5th stage of the Tour of Oman. Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) was 2nd on the stage with Marco Canola (United Healthcare) taking 3rd.
Boasson Hagen’s team-mate Jacques Janse van Rensburg jumped into the early break of the day with Pieter Weening (Roompot) and Hugo Houle (AG2R La Mondiale). The trio got away inside the opening 10km of the stage and powered ahead to a 6-minute lead.
Janse van Rensburg was clearly the strongest in the break as he took all 4 King of the Mountain primes on offer and his accelerations on the penultimate climb dropped Houle while Weening was also distanced, but would later return on the descent. With the South African climber forcing the pace up front, the peloton had its work cut out to try and reel the escapees back.
Astana and Bora were the two teams having to do all the chasing as Boasson Hagen and his team could conserve energy in the peloton. While the peloton was slowly bringing Janse van Rensburg and Weening back, the effort it required certainly took its toll on the group as a number of riders were getting dropped over the 3 shark tooth climbs of the day.
With 10km to go, the gap to Weening and Janse van Rensburg had dropped to 45 seconds. It would be touch and go for the former South African champion but in the end he came up 2km short of the line. The Norwegian champion then showed the reduced group a clean pair of heels, sprinting to his 2nd victory of the week.
Janse van Rensburg’s fine effort was rewarded with the Combative Jersey on the podium and Boasson Hagen also regained the lead in the Points Jersey competition. With Nathan Haas also finishing 10th on the stage, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka also kept the lead in the Best Team competition.
Edvald Boasson Hagen
“It was really good to have Jacques in the break so we didn’t have to chase from behind. He did a really good job up there and we could just focus on sitting up front all day and not use up too much energy, so that was perfect.”
“After the last climb Jacques was caught and we still had guys in the group. So Serge Pauwels, Merhawi Kudus and Nathan were able to do a really good leadout for me in the last kilometer. I just had to open up my sprint with 200m to go so I am really happy to win after all the great team work today.”
