After winning the opening stage, André Greipel was the first leader of the Tour of Oman but he failed to defend his lead in yesterday's bunch sprint after he dropped his chain in the hectic finish. The Lotto Belisol sprinter shrugged off the disappointment and is now targeting success later in the race.

André Greipel has been one of the dominant sprinters in the early part of the 2014 season, taking 4 wins in just three stage races, and he was again the man to beat when the Tour of Oman peloton lined up for yesterday's second stage. After taking a convincing win on the opening day, Greipel was clad in the red leader's jersey and had firm intentions of adding another win to his palmares.

His Lotto Belisol teammates dutifully chased down the early breakaway but when the official results were communicated by the organizers, Greipel's name was to be found back in a lowly 25th. People wondered what might have happened as the sprint combination of Marcel Sieberg, Jurgen Roelandts, and Greipel has been virtually unbeatable all year.

It turned out that Greipel had been plagued by bad luck. In the hectic finale, he dropped his chain and had no chance to get back in contention in the hectic headwind sprint.

"What can you do? That's racing. You either have the right luck, the right moment to win, or you don't," he said at the finish. "It was a bit of a mess with the block headwind. There were riders everywhere and there was nowhere for me to go after I had my problem."

As Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) finished 2nd for the second consecutive day, he took over Greipel's red jersey as the German fell to 3rd, 2 seconds behind the Australian and equal on time with stage 2 winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha).

Greipel may potentially get a chance to take revenge in today's 3rd stage which includes two steep climbs inside the final 25km. They are likely to rule out most of the fast finishers but Greipel has often proved that he is a solid climber who certainly has a chance to survive the hostilities before the flat finish.

You can read our preview of the race here.