Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) won the 2nd stage of the Tour of Oman ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) from a small bunch sprint. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had both Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Louis Meintjes finish as part of the select front group.
The 2nd stage of the Tour of Oman saw some late excitement with a short climb in the final 10km of the stage providing a platform for some attacking riding. The early 4 man escape of the day stood no chance as multiple teams had an interest in the stage finale today, including Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung.
It was the African team who started the fireworks on the races final climb when Louis Meintjes attacked with Julien Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing). The pair were only able to build up a slight lead as the climb was rather short. In the plummet to the line the duo were reeled in by a select group of 16 chasers.
Jacques Janse van Rensburg was also present in this front group. In the small group sprint finish van Rensburg would cross the line in 12th place and Meintjes in 16th. This is a solid result for the 2 African climbers, not losing any time to the races main contenders and even gaining a few seconds on the rest of the field.
"Today we had a superb ride from Louis and Jacques, both riders were in the first group," sports director Jens Zemke said. "Louis attacked in the final climb with Arredondo and they had a small gap of maybe 10 seconds. With about 5 or 6km to go they were both caught but we still both our guys finish in the first group. For such a high profile race this is a really good start for our team."
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