A look at
who’s racing hard this week…
Tour of Oman
The big boys come out to play
It’s always
hard to pick favorites in early season races as some riders come to win but
many treat them as slightly more challenging training rides. A sprinty race that can turn into a strong
man race with a bit of wind Oman would be Qatar part two were it not for one major
difference: Jabal Al Akhdhar. Cue the Middle Eastern throat singing here. The
Green Mountain is a game changer and always determines the overall winner. To be fair this race has several more hills
than Oman but they rarely have much impact.
With the first stage in the books we have a few clues as to how this
race will pan out. Kittel took the first
stage and is obviously going for sprint points.
None of the other WFL sprinters were up there with him, however, it should
be noted that Phinney (The Big Phin, Shark Phin?) placed high and is showing
some excellent early season form. The
other lesson we learned is that Wiggo isn’t going to race for much until the
Giro, he is already over a minute down and thoughts have turned to his
vacation, I mean, “training camp” in the Canary Islands. So who are the favorites? Velits won here last year and he is looking
to snatch another victory early this year.
This could be a Sagan or Gilbert route, but the Green Monster tends to
be just too tough a climb. Look for the
real climbers to take this one. Here are our riders.
Forza: Nocentini, Gilbert, Nibali
Fujarky: Evans, Contador
Dynamic: Sagan, Rodriguez, Velits,
Volpe: Boonen, Cancellera, Kittel, Phinney
Guillaume: Terpstra, Goss, Wiggins, Froome,
Porte, Breschel
Taco: Van Avermaet, Degenkolb
Wiskota
Podium Predictions:
Nibali,
Contador, Velits
It would be fun to see PhilGil and Sagan climb Jabal Al Akhdhar with the grimpeurs, early season form, one never knows.
ReplyDeleteI think that Purito Rodriguez will find hisway on to the podium. A little F you to the CAS and UCI during decision week.
The Green Mountain is most definetly Purito country but I just don't get the feeling hes going for it. The guys going for GC are always high on the finishes even on sprints. I stick by my predictions. Velits may only get top 5 or 6 but remember that's "Wiskota Podium".
ReplyDeleteCan Sagan build enough of a lead? Up by 16, 30 on the big contenders.