After three 2nd places, Peter Sagan (Cannondale) finally opened his 2014 account when he emerged as the strongest in the very hilly 4th stage of the Tour of Oman. A stiff headwind made it impossible for the GC riders to make a difference and instead Sagan escaped with Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on the descent before easily beating the in a sprint to become the new leader in the race.

Peter Sagan has not had the season start that he had hoped for, with several near-misses and frustrating podium places dominating his first races in San Luis, Dubai, and Oman. Yesterday he was left disappointed when he was beaten into second by André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) but today he took his revenge when he won the hilly fourth stage of the Tour of Oman.

The stage was expected to be a big showdown between the GC contenders as the stage ended with two laps on a difficult circuit that sent the riders up the Bousher Alamrat four times. Last year Chris Froome had won a similar stage and the Brit was eager to repeat the feat.

Hence, it was no surprise to see the Sky train ride at the front of the peloton for most of the day as they used their usual tactic to whittle down the peloton. On the final ascent, Froome did what everyone expected when he launched an attack that only RIgoberto Uran could match.

However, a stiff headwind made it impossible to keep the gap and so a 40-rider group gathered when they started the downhill and flat run-in to the finish. However, Sagan, Uran, and Vincenzo Nibali had no plans to wait for the sprint and they used their excellent descending skills to take off.

Despite the peloton working hard to catch the three leaders, they battled both the headwind and the pursuit bravely, working seamlessly together. Nibali and Uran were happy to gain time on their GC rivals while Sagan had all his eyes on the stage.

The trio managed to stay away and it was no surprise to see Sagan take an easy sprint win to open his 2014 account, with Uran finishing 2nd ahead of Nibali. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) led the chase group across the line a few seconds later.

With the win Sagan also took the leader's jersey from André Greipel who was dropped already on the first climb. However, his stint as overall leader is likely to be short-lived as tomorrow is the day of the queen stage. The mostly flat route ends with the brutal climb up the Green Mountain and the 5.7km climb with its 10.5% average gradient is sure to determine the overall winner of the Tour of Oman.

You can read our preview of the race here.

A hilly stage

The fourth stage of the Tour of Oman was expected to be one for the climbers as Chris Froome had beaten Alberto Contador and Joaquim Rodriguez in a similar stage one year ago. The 173km from Wadi Al Abiyad to the Ministry of Housing had a mostly flat start but things got serious at the end. The riders ended the stage by doing two laps on a difficult finishing circuit that saw the climb the difficult Bousher Almrat climb twice from both sides, with the final ascent leading to a 12.5km descent and flat section to the finish.

The stage started out under beautiful sunshine and the peloton was ready to race. The first part of the race was extremely fast as several riders tried to escape from the gun.

The break is formed

The first riders to get a significant gap were the Astana duo of Valerio Agnoli and Lieuwe Westra and Murilo Fischer (FDJ) who got clear at the 9km mark but 7km further up the road it was back together. This opened the door for new attacks and moments after the catch, the day's break was formed.

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen), Evan Huffman (Astana), and Yaroslav Popovych (Trek) took off and after 25km of racing, they had been allowed to build up a 2.35 gap. The peloton was not too concerned with the escapees and allowed their advantage to grow even further and when Wallays beat Van Avermaet and Popovych in the first intermediate sprint after 37km of racing, the gap was 7.25.

The chase gets organized

The break was even allowed to stretch their lead to a maximum of 8.10 after 50km of racing in what had been a very fast start to the stage, with the break covering 46.7km in the first hour. It was now time for the peloton to start a chase and it was Team Sky, Belkin, and Tinkoff-Saxo who took on the responsibility, working for Chris Froome, Robert Gesink, and Roman Kreuziger respectively.

The gap started to slowly come down and in the feedzone after 79km of racing, it was 6.45. A crash at the 100km mark unfortunately forced Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen) to abandon while the advantage was gradually melting away, being just 5.50 at the 107km mark.

Greipel is dropped

The pace ramped up as the peloton approached the first of the four climbs on the finishing circuit and it sent several riders out the back door when the main group started to splinter on the ascent. One of the first to lose contact was race leader André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) while best young rider Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) didn't survive much longer than the German.

At the top, Wallays beat Van Avermaet and Popovych to score more points for the most aggressive rider's competition but their gap was now down to 4.15. As they started the second climb, it had been reduced even further to just 3 minutes.

Van Avermaet takes off

At the top of the second climb, the final intermediate sprint was located and it was again Wallays who took maximum points, beating Van Avermaet and Huffman. The peloton continued their fierce pace-setting and things would explode on the third ascent.

Van Avermaet decided that it was time to go off on his own, holding a small 1-minute advantage as he fought his way up the slopes. Meanwhile, Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Andy Schleck (Trek) were some of the riders to get dropped by the bunch.

Nieve launches an attack

Sky decided to launch their first attack by sending Mikel Nieve up the road and at the top, the Spaniard had closed the gap to Van Avermaet to just 18 seconds while the rest of the early break had been caught. The peloton was 32 seconds behind the leader but Van Avermaet managed to reopen his lead to 55 seconds on the descent.

Before the final ascent, Nieve was back in the fold and on the lower slopes it was also over for Van Avermaet. Near the top Froome launched his expected attack, taking off with Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and cresting the summit in first position.

Sagan, Uran and Nibali take off

The duo opened a small gap but as they faced a stiff headwind on the run-in to the line, they were quickly swallowed up by the bunch that now consisted of around 40 riders. On the descent, however, Uran attacked again, this time being joined by Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).

The trio managed to build up a 14-second gap and when they passed the 5km to go sign, they were still 12 seconds ahead. 2km further up the road, they had even extended their advantage to 19 seconds and Sagan was heading for an easy sprint win.

With Nibali and Uran riding for the GC and Sagan going for the stage, there was a seamless cooperation in the break and they managed to stay away all the way to the finish. Sagan took an easy sprint win over Uran while Impey led the chase group home a few seconds later.