Tour of Oman - Muscat Classic 2024 , February 9-14

[Lequack]

Tomorrow will decide the GC once and for all

 

[Potomac]

Based on Kulsets consistent results around 15-20 it got me thinking.

You are guaranteed to finish 15th in every single race you enter for your whole career other than GC which will be whatever it ends up with based on your 15th spots. Or you are guaranteed to win one race per year and nothing else and otherwise you finish at the back of the field like above 100th place.
What would you choose?

Victory or death

 

[ingsve]

Victory or death

What about cake?

 

[Landeirovic]

Tomorrow will decide the GC once and for all

Yates for stage and gc

 

[Lequack]

Yates for stage and gc

He has to work for Finn.

 

[tobydawq]

He has to work for Finn.

On a MTF?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Tomorrows stage shortened to 72 km but still finishes on top of Green Mountain. I guess the route before the climb was still pretty flat, so it doesn’t matter much if it’s 65-70 km shorter?

 

[repre]

He has to work for Finn.

no way, he should attack and take the GC

 

[Samamba]

Tomorrows stage shortened to 72 km but still finishes on top of Green Mountain. I guess the route before the climb was still pretty flat, so it doesn’t matter much if it’s 65-70 km shorter?

No, doesn't make a difference.

Don't really get the changes there the last few stages tbh, what actually is the problem? There is no rain anymore. I understood that because of a landslide the first MTF was cancelled so that was logical, but now they're just cancelling flat parts of the stage to make them shorter?

 

[Lequack]

Tour of Oman 2024 - Highlights of Stage 4​

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPyihL2D9sI

 

[tobydawq]

Tomorrows stage shortened to 72 km but still finishes on top of Green Mountain. I guess the route before the climb was still pretty flat, so it doesn’t matter much if it’s 65-70 km shorter?

Because it rained three days before?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I suspect the local authorities have partially revoked permission for nebulous reasons (autocracy gonna autocracy). Whatever the cause, this race should not be allowed to retain its UCI status without explicit guarantees on maintaining race length.

 

[yaco]

No, doesn't make a difference.

Don't really get the changes there the last few stages tbh, what actually is the problem? There is no rain anymore. I understood that because of a landslide the first MTF was cancelled so that was logical, but now they're just cancelling flat parts of the stage to make them shorter?

There has been flooding in Oman after the two days of rain which resulted in three deaths - The country does not cope well with rain, so I imagine the authorities are still in a clean up phase.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Not sure what you are watching.
In the UK Disco+ and Eurosport TV have so far managed to show stage one twice and last years stage two so far.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

He has to work for Finn.

I don't think even Fisher-Black himself thinks this is the right call.

 

[Potomac]

You gotta show fisher black support until he cracks.

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1757470894601965575

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1757470894601965575

 

[Tim Cahill]

Adam Richard is probably top 3 or 4 in the world on this kind of finish and the others aren't here. He doesn't really seem to ever be out of form nowadays either so I assume they go for him with Fisher-Black as back up.

 

[scribers]

He has to work for Finn.

Only if Finn can stay with the next threat to win. Then it's every man for himself!

 

[Faserr]

Riders will loose shape in this race if they don't get for a training ride after the stages. 75km flat with one climb at the end.

 

[tobydawq]

You gotta show fisher black support until he cracks.

Again, on an MTF??

 

[rghysens]

Riders will loose shape in this race if they don't get for a training ride after the stages. 75km flat with one climb at the end.

That´s in fact a well known feature of these middle eastern races. Thomas De Gendt (iirc) once claimed in an interview that his average power output in one of those races (Qatar or UAE) was less than 150W for most stages. Sometimes they indeed leave these races with a worse shape than they start them with. Strolling 150km on a panflat road in the middle of the peloton doesn´t improve your shape.

 

[Samamba]

So Yates indeed working for FFB

 

[Berniece]

Good to see Jan Hirt find his form again

 

[Samamba]

Hirt is back.

Absolute weird stuff from UAE.