Tinkoff-Saxo’s Matti Breschel was in the mix of riders sprinting for victory in today’s stage 3 of Tour of Oman. The punchy Dane, who finished 7th on the day, tells that he rode the stage with a dual purpose. He was aiming to secure a good result for the team, while taking some pressure off Sagan’s shoulders in the finale that was won by Alexander Kristoff. However, the stage turned out harder than expected as temperature in the sun rose to nearly 50° C.

“Even though most of the stage was pretty relaxed, it became fairly extreme. Our SRM controls said 48°-50° C in the sun, so we had to go back and forth to the team car a lot to make sure we had enough bottles to stay hydrated. I rode the sprint for the team today in order to give Peter a respite from having to fight for stage wins every day. So I took some of the pressure today and Peter rode lead-out for me instead”, commented Matti Breschel after the stage.

After the flat 158km stage around the Al Mussanah Sports City, sport director Sean Yates stated that he wanted to leave the responsibility to the sprinter’s teams.

“Looking at the stage profile, it was a day for the pure sprinters, so together with Trek Factory, they took control of the stage and slowly reeled in the three-man breakaway, which had almost ten minutes after 40k of the stage”, tells Yates.

In the final sprint, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) proved to be the fastest on the line thereby continuing his streak of wins from Tour of Qatar. Matti Breschel finished 7th.

“In the last kilometers, we had a strong headwind on wide roads, so it was tricky to get the timing of the lead-out right. The plan was to give Sagan a day off from his normal responsibilities, and together with Bennati he worked to position Breschel in the sprint. Matti did a good job and I think he enjoyed participating. I mean, he’s a fast guy and he’s showing good form considering the approaching spring classics. But we also have to give credit to Kristoff, who is bloody strong at the moment”, comments Sean Yates.

Good preparation ahead of spring classics

Matti Breschel is racing in Oman coming straight off the back of Tour of Qatar. With his favored spring classics in mind, he reckons that the action on the Arabian Peninsula is an ideal preparation for him and Tinkoff-Saxo.

“This kind of speed is what we need at this moment. This is a critical part of the season for Peter, Benna and I, as we’re approaching the spring classics. We had some tough days of racing in Qatar with a bucket load of wind, and here in Oman we’re also seeing some real racing. The team showed in in Qatar that we were the strongest together with Etixx-QuickStep. And yesterday, we took control at the front and positioned Rafal and Peter well on an important stage”, evaluates Matti Breschel and continues:

“For me it’s important to ride and work together with Peter, as he’s our captain in the Classics. I can tell from looking at him that he’s in a really good shape, which also motivates me. He’s up there among the best on all stages, and it is margins that have separated him from the wins so far”.

Tomorrow’s stage 4 is the queen stage of Tour of Oman, where the favorites will settle the GC on the finishing climb to Green Mountain. Rafal Majka sits in 11th place, six seconds behind best-placed GC rival Alejandro Valverde.