Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels won the opening stage of this year’s Tour of Oman for his first victory for the Etixx-QuickStep team since joining the
ADVERTISEMENTLuxembourg’s Bob Jungels won the opening stage of this year’s Tour of Oman for his first victory for the Etixx-QuickStep team since joining the Belgian outfit this winter.
The first challenge of the seventh edition of the race took the riders over 145 kilometres from the Oman Exhibition Center to Al Bustan.
After just a couple of kilometres a handful of men took off for the break of the day but as they made their way up the first climb – with under 30 kilometres to go all were caught.
The final climbs fragmented the bunch with 18 riders going clear – that was down to 17 when Eduardo Sepulveda hit the deck.
23-year-old Jungels then attacked with just over two kilometres remaining.
The four-time Luxembourg time trial champion opened up a slim lead on the fast downhill section and managed to keep himself clear as the road flattened to cross over first ahead of Belgiam Serge Pauwels of the Dimension Data team and Frenchman Romain Bardet for AG2R-La Mondiale
.