Danny Pate just missed out on his first Team Sky podium by battling to fourth place on the final stage of the Tour of Oman.

Pate worked intelligently to infiltrate a four-man breakaway and their hard riding saw them evade their pursuers and duke it out for the victory.

It was Matthias Brändle who emerged triumphant, with the IAM Cycling rider jumping clear in the closing stages and wrapping up his win with a four-second advantage over Iljo Keisse (Etixx – Quick-Step). Jef van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen) - the race’s most aggressive rider - rounded out the top three to deny Pate a maiden top-three finish.  

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) led home the peloton 1min 16sec behind Brändle, and Rafael Valls’ presence in that main group ensured the Lampre-Merida rider took the overall title with a nine-second winning margin over Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing).

After the stage, Sports Director Nicolas Portal praised Pate’s efforts and reflected on an encouraging week in the saddle.

He told TeamSky.com: “We had planned to go on the attack today and Danny rode a really strong race. He launched an attack on the last climb to try and distance the others, but they caught him on the descent which followed and he didn’t have anything left in the tank when Brändle made his move.

“Before that happened the action had been full gas behind. BMC Racing and Movistar rode hard to split things up on first climb and Philip [Deignan] was in a group of around 20-30 riders over the top. Those groups came back together but they couldn’t catch Danny and the others.

“It’s been a good week for us in terms of our training for future races. Wout[Poels] finished 15th on GC and our domestiques have been really strong. Everything’s looking good and we’re where we need to be at this stage in the season.”