Ramon Sinkeldam has taken his second top ten in three days on third stage of the Tour of Oman as he sprinted to eighth place in the bunch kick into Al Mussanah Sports City.

Three riders formed the day’s escape early on and lasted until 20km to go before being swallowed back up by the fast moving peloton intent on a bunch sprint. The team was made to work extra hard in the final 20km after the race had regrouped as Warren Barguil, Georg Preidler and Tom Stamsnijder hit the deck in a crash within the peloton. Like the team’s crash at the Ruta del Sol, a similar fall occurred here as the team came to grief when riding closely together, moving up the peloton.

All three were able to remount and make it back to the peloton before the pace was too high to do so, but it put the plans for the sprint formation on the back foot heading into the final stages of the race.

All eight riders finished safely within the peloton, with only Nikias Arndt and Bert De Backer finishing a handful of seconds behind the winner’s time, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha). Tomorrow’s stage should serve as the first GC shake-up of the race as the riders take on the queen stage with a mountain top finish on Green Mountain after 189km of racing.

“Today was the final sprint opportunity for a few days and we made the plan beforehand to go for the sprint with Ramon,” explained Coach Marc Reef. “The bunch was well in control today and we made sure that we stuck together and in position, going through the motions as a team.

“In the final, Stammie, Warren and Georg crashed but thankfully all were OK, only Stammie hit his hip and had some road rash. They made it back to the bunch in a good way together and up front Tom V [Veelers] brought Ramon up into position behind the FDJ train, but they slowed in the final kilometre so he had to jump on his own and ended up going too early.

“Tomorrow will be a very different day in the hills and it will be a good test for Warren and also Carter [Jones] in his first mountain stage with the team.”