Tejay van Garderen (BMC) got his season off to the perfect start when he finished 2nd in his first race, the Tour of Oman, thus contiuning BMC's great start to the season. The American says that some unusual race tactics from Team Sky could even have given him the win on the final day.

Tejay van Garderen continued the BMC Racing Team's string of early-season successes Sunday with a runner-up placing to Chris Froome (Team Sky) at the Tour of Oman. 

Van Garderen finished second to Froome Saturday on the race's uphill finish on Green Mountain and the 26-second margin between the two after that stage stayed the same, as André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) won the bunch sprint that capped the race. Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) finished third overall, 31 seconds back.

Van Garderen, who was making his season debut and first career appearance in Oman, said the 146.5-kilometer final stage was the most challenging.

"It was a hard start and a big group got away, which kind of put Sky under a little pressure," he said. "Me and a couple other GC (general classification) guys were in there. Then, Greg Van Avermaet got in a break. Then Orica-GreenEDGE, for whatever reason, wasn't happy with it. So they pulled it back. It seemed like big groups kept going and going. Finally it settled down and was pretty straight-forward into the finish. But in my opinion, it was definitely the hardest day."

Sky have used a differet tactics in this year's Omani race, often sending riders like Mikel Nieve and Sergio Henao up the road instead using their usual train. According to van Garderen, the tactics could have backfired and given him the overall win.

"They've definitely been adopting a more aggressive style of racing. It makes it interesting," he said according to Cyclingnews.

"Henao was jumping in breaks today, which makes some other GC guys jump too because if he gets up the road, then we have to ride. They're following an untraditional tactic, which makes it a bit more stressful for us but more exciting.

"It almost didn't play out in their favour. When Henao jumped, me and Kreuziger were careful too and so we jumped with him. The next thing you knew, there was a 15-rider breakaway and even Uran was in there. But Froome was back (in the peloton) and if we'd been more organised, it could have cost him the race. Tactics are tactics, they don't always play out as you plan.

"I'm between two pretty big names in cycling: a Tour de France winner and a Giro d'Italia podium finisher. I'm honoured to be next to these guys.

"If you look at the names here, there are definitely some big contenders, so I'm happy to be in the mix with these guys. But I'm also trying to not get too high or not get too low. I'm trying to see this race as a good indicator for form and of things to come.

"We're a long way from July. You can't put too much emphasis on Green Mountain, that was a five kilometre climb. We're going to be tackling much longer, much harder and much steeper climbs than that."

Van Garderen's runner-up placing follows BMC Racing Team's overall victories at the Dubai Tour (Taylor Phinney) and Tour Méditerranéen (Stephen Cummings) and runner-up finishes by Cadel Evans at the Santos Tour Down Under and the Australian national road championships and with Cummings at the Dubai Tour.

Sport Director Valerio Piva said he was pleased the squad in Oman could keep the momentum going.

"Yesterday, Tejay did a fantastic uphill finish and we are very happy," he said. "Everyone on the team feels the season has started well and the guys are being responsible and feel that every race we will be competitive. I hope that we can continue with that in the next races."

Van Garderen said he is already looking ahead to his next start, which comes at Paris-Nice.

"I have some important WorldTour races coming up and I am also keeping focused on the Tour de France," he said but added that the course in the Paris-Nice may not be in his favour.

"I'd have liked to have a time trial or a mountain top finish to try to separate things out a bit. It seems like going there, there could be 80 guys lining up thinking they have a chance to win. It'll be interesting."