Andre Greipel wins the opening stage of the Tour of Oman 2012
Andre Greipel of Lotto Belisol Team won the opening stage of the Tour of Oman. The cyclist sprinted his way across the finish-line in the best time of 3 hours, 26 minutes and 9 seconds.
The German sprinter continued his splendid form by overcoming Denis Galimzyanov and Tyler Farrar at the 159 kilometre stage one of the race.
Greipel had a terrific start to his 2012 season and has already secured his fifth victory of the young season.
His previous wins include the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, stage 1, stage 3 and stage 6 at the Santos Tour Down Under.
The cyclist was looking confident right from the start of the race and he cruised smoothly between Al Alam Royal Palace and Wadi Al Hoqay, on February 14, 2012.
“We hit the front the last 15km to put me in a good position for the end, and we stuck to our plan with 2km to go,” he explained after the race.
“Adam Hansen went, then Jens Debusschere, Marcel Sieberg, Greg Henderson and me. I felt I was a bit too early in the wind so I let two guys in and then with 200 metres to go I opened my sprint,” he added.
The German was fully supported by the whole Belgian squad, especially Greg Henderson.
Greipel admired his contributions in the victory and mentioned that Henderson’s inclusion added tremendous strength to Team Lotto-Belisol’s lead-out trains.
He said, “I come more relaxed to the finish because I just follow him. It takes a big pressure off my shoulder because I don’t need to fight for the position”.
Henderson finished the opening stage at the 37th position while Marcel Kittel, Peter Sagan and Nacer Bouhanni claimed the fourth, fifth and sixth spots.
Alexandre Lemair of Team Bridgestone Anchor and Mikhail Ignatyev of Team Katusha secured the two sprints of the race.
Denis Galimzyanov, Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan were the top three young riders on the day.
Andre Greipel is now leading the general classifications with a difference of 4 seconds over Denis Galimzyanov, while Tyler Farrar is further 2 seconds behind at the third spot.
Team Liquigas-Cannondale is currently leading the team’s classifications with Team RadioShack-Nissan, Team Project 1t4i and Rabobank Cycling Team grabbing the second, third and fourth positions, respectively.
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