Not too surprisingly, Vincenzo Nibali not only follows even lighter race schedule towards the Tour de France than it took place last season, but apparently has no intentions to shine in his build-up races, Tour of Oman being the first of them. Fortunately Jakob Fuglsang and Andriy Grivko were ready to take over the responsibility then their Italian leader faltered, keeping Astana's chances for a good result in the general classification alive before the decisive battle on the Green Mountain.

Once impressively versatile, in recent years Fuglsang turned himself into the first tier domestique for tough mountain stages. His Wednesday's attack allows to believe that the Dane is confident about his current disposition despite participating in his first race of the season, what immediately made him Astana's protected rider for the overall classification in Oman.

“I think I will be the leader for the GC, and maybe share it with Grivko. We will have to see how it goes and if he can go full gas on the climb,” Fuglsang told Cyclingnews at the start of stage three of the Tour of Oman. “A lot of things can happen and they predict more wind tomorrow so we have to be careful too.”

“I feel them (his legs) a little bit but I guess it’s also because of the heat. In general I’m feeling pretty happy with being up there yesterday, it’s my first race and I’m happy to be up at the front in the race,” he said.

Fuglsang acknowledges that the general classification of the mauntainous stage event will be decided on the slopes of the Green Mountain on Friday, and so aim to make the best possible use of his already proven climbing legs.

“I will try to do my best and try to stay up there,” he said. “In general I think I will climb a little better than (Andrey) Grivko but he is also in really good shape at the moment but I will try to do my best and hopefully be able to get a good position on the climb tomorrow.”