The third stage at the Tour of Oman was one for the sprinters. Unfortunately BORA - ARGON 18 sprint captain Sam Bennett couldn’t fight for the stage decision. After 158 kilometers, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) scored the victory. The Italians Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Matteo Pelucchi (IAM) sprinted to the podium. While a stage result didn’t work out for BORA - ARGON 18, Patrick Konrad defended again the white jersey as the best young rider. He finished the stage without a time loss and he still sits in 3rd place of the GC.

“The team worked for Sam today which really went very well over the entire stage. But in the final Sam’s lead-out man Zak [Dempster] had a mechanical right at the 3,000 meters mark. This was far away from the optimum but Sam fought anyway. With 500 meters to go, he suddenly was blocked and in a bad position. Then, Sam stopped the effort and didn’t take part in the sprint because he wasn’t feeling 100%. For sure, it’s not what we’ve expected for today but these days are also part of the sport“, Sport Director Enrico Poitschke analyzes the day.

“Since Dominik [Nerz] is in a phase of building-up his form due to an illness in January, we’ll focus completely on Patrick tomorrow. We want to deliver him in a perfect position at the final climb. Then, we’ll see how he could keep up with the huge competition here. The last days showed that he has a very good form and that he’s very motivated. But the stage tomorrow will be a big challenge: it’s a long day, it’s gonna be hot and the final climb is really challenging “, Poitschke looks ahead.

Stage four at the Tour of Oman runs over 189 kilometers and it’s the queen stage of the tour. The riders have to climb the Green Mountain over 5,7 kilometers with an average grade of 10.5%. The climbing specialists will not only fight for the stage win but also for the preliminary decision in the GC.