Trek Factory Racing successfully defended the leader’s jersey on stage three at the Tour of Oman on a flat parcours that offered another chance for the sprinters.

Danny van Poppel was deposited in prime position by his teammates with 200 meters to go, but in the final meters he faded and had to settle for fifth place. It was his best result, and chance, in the bunched sprints after falling ill before Qatar, and he was frustrated he did not pull off a better result.

“The team did such a good job and I was fifth,” Danny Van Poppel explained. “I am not so happy, I wanted to bring the guys a win. With 200meters to go [Gert] Steegmans had done such a great lead out, I was in the best position that I could wish. It was perfect…I really want to win."

“With two kilometers to go we had five or six guys in front in a sprint train,” continued Van Poppel. “For me that was really motivating. It’s really nice to have Fabian [Cancellara] there to help, because he is preparing for the Classics and he knows how to take the right risks. I really appreciate that, and it makes my job easy. I wish that I could have given them the win.”

Trek Factory Racing showed its power and experience in the finale, and unlike yesterday, today they got it right. With Fabian Cancellara and Gert Steegmans leading the way Danny van Poppel was following some of the best; it was as good as it gets.

Placed in prime real estate only a few seconds from victory is a sprinter’s dream, however, in the fast-moving, often dangerous world of mass sprints everything must align and today the front wind played antagonist to Danny van Poppel. Four wheels scooted past in the last meters and Van Poppel was left with only a head-full of ‘what-ifs’.

“After the race Danny was really upset with himself,” director Dirk Demol said. “He beat himself up pretty hard to not finish better after the team did such a great job. It was headwind, cross-headwind, and he started too early. In the last meters, he was passed; I can say he was very, very disappointed as soon as he came to the car.”

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) narrowly edged out the others in the close sprint to claim the stage win.

The overall classification remained status quo and Fabian Cancellara continues in the red leader’s jersey for the queen stage tomorrow.

With no time trial in the Tour of Oman the Green Mountain finish of stage four is the main opportunity to sort out the general classification, and it will be a feisty battle to its summit Friday.

Dirk Demol summed up today, and gave us an insight of what the team will do in tomorrow’s key stage: “With three guys in the break it was a good situation for us today, and we let them go. In the pre-race meeting we discussed that it would not be too hard to defend the jersey today with the sprinters’ team all hunting a win, so we focused to give a hand to Danny. In the end it was a good day: we did a great lead out and we kept the leader’s jersey. Fifth is okay, and Danny will have many more chances, of that I am sure.

“For tomorrow, they are announcing very hot weather again, so it will be a huge effort at the end on the climb,” he continued. “We will not need to waste energy defending the lead because a lot of teams are interested in tomorrow’s finish. We will look to Julián [Arredondo] and if Fabian feels okay he will do his best; he has done well here on this climb in the past so we shall see.”