Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) put a crash in the recent Tour of Qatar behind him when he powered clear in the bunch sprint on the second stage of the Tour of Oman to take his first win of the season. On a very straightforward day for the sprinters, the Norwegian held off Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) who was 2nd for second day in a row, and Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) while bonus seconds were enough to elevate Howard into the overall lead.

Alexander Kristoff got his season off to a terrible start when he crashed hard on the first stage of the Tour of Qatar, the first race of his season. Having hurt his arm in the tumble, he was never able to express his talents in the desert race but a couple of days rest ahead of the Tour of Oman seem to have suited him well.

Yesterday Kristoff finished 9th on the opening stage of the final race in the block of Middle East events and today he showed that he is back at 100% when he held off some of the world's fastest sprinters to win the second stage. He beat Leigh Howard and Tom Boonen in the final dash to the line while race leader and stage 1 winner André Greipel failed to make it into the top positions.

The sprint came at the end of a very straightforward day where the early breakaway was controlled firmly by the teams of the sprinters and this allowed the fast finishers to save their energy for their final burst of speed. The host of top-level sprinters all arrived fresh at the finish and it was Kristoff who showed that he continues his rise towards the top of the sprinting hierarchy.

For the second day in a row, Howard finished 2nd in the sprint and this upped his tally of bonus seconds to 12. As stage winner Kristoff and Greipel failed to finish in the top 3 on the stage they didn't win, this has elevated Howard into the overall lead, two seconds ahead of the two stage winners.

Howard faces a difficult challenge of defending his lead in tomorrow's 145km 3rd stage from Bank Muscat to Al Bustan. The route is mostly flat but two nasty, steep climbs await inside the final 25km, the final one coming just 6.5km from the line. A stage had a similar finish in last year's edition and it ended up ruling out most of the fast finishers, with Peter Sagan making a later attack to win the stage in solo fashion.

You can read our preview of the race here.

Another opportunity for the sprinters

The Tour of Oman continued with a 139km stage from Al Bustan to Quriyat that seemed to be another opportunity for the sprinters. The profile was slightly more rolling that yesterday's flat affair but with noo categorized climbs in the short stage, everybody expected it to be another one for the fast finishers.

The stage started with one minute of silence to honour Kristof Goddaert (IAM) who tragically passed away in a training crash yesterday. His former IAM teammates wore black arm bands during the stage.

The break is formed

As everybody expected the stage to be firmly controlled by the teams of the sprinters, there was no big fight to get into the early breakaway. Already after 4.5km of racing, the day's three-man escape had been formed and it involved the exact same teams that had been on the offensive 24 hours earlier.

Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen) had taken the lead in the most aggressive rider competition by being involved in yesterday's break and the Belgian was eager to score a few more points for that classification. Hence, he joined the early break and rode away with Paolo Colonna (Bardiani) and sprinter Aldo Ino Ilesic (UnitedHealthCare).

Hinault gives up

Sebastien Hinault (IAM) regretted not being part of the breakaway and so set off in pursuit. However, he faced a difficult task as he was 2 minutes behind after 13km of racing, with the peloton being 1.35 further adrift.

9km further down the road, Hinault had not come any close to joining the breakaway, sitting 2.10 behind the three escapees, while the peloton had an easy start to the stage and was now 6 minutes behind. The French IAM rider decided not to persist and fell back to the main group which was 7.25 behind after 35km of racing.

The chase gets organized

The gap kept growing for a little longer and reached a maximum of 7.45 before the sprint teams decided that it was time to take affair. While Van Hecke beat Colonna and Ilesic at the first intermediate sprint after 63km, thus extending his lead in the most aggressive rider's competition, the peloton started to slowly whittle down the lead. At the sprint point, they had already reduced the advantage to 5 minutes.

Lotto Belisol, Tinkoff-Saxo, and Omega Pharma-Quick Step did the majority of the work, hoping to see André Greipel, Daniele Bennati, and Tom Boonen mix it up in the sprint respectively. With 48km to go, the gap was down to 2.25 and 27km from the finish, the three leaders were only 1.15 ahead.

Ilesic is dropped

The break tried to react by upping the pace but this was too much for Ilesic who fell back to the peloton. Van Hecke reached his objective as the front duo managed to stay clear until the final intermediate sprint, 17.5km from the finish, where the Belgian dutifully took maximum points. Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) won the sprint for the final bonus second, showing his ambitions for the GC.

At this point, the breakaway was still 36 seconds ahead but the peloton had everything under control. With 10km to go, the duo was swallowed up by the main group, setting the scene for another bunch sprint.

From there the pace was kept high all the way to the finish, with the sprint trains all jostling for position. In the end, Kristoff emerged as the fastest while another runner-up spot for Howard put him in the leader's jersey.