Tour of Oman 2025 Stage 2

February 9, 2025 It's a marathon stage of over 200KM but the finish is very similar to the Muscat Classic just a few days earlier so the route will be fresh in the minds of many. The 2.7KM climb of Al Jissah summits just 11KM from the finish in the Yitti Hills which should see a reduced group coming to the finish. Rodrigo Álvarez of Burgo Burpellet BH, Kane Richards of Roojai Insurance, and Mohammed Al-Wahibi of the Oman National Team were eventually joined by Al-Wahibi's teammate Mundher al Hsani and Magnus Kulset of Uno-X Mobility after a long chase. The attacking wasn't done in the peloton though. Soudal Quickstep were very aggressive but the break was 5 minutes up the road. Live timing was a challenge during the entire stage so it was difficult to know where the riders were but at some point around 150KM to go, Louis Vervaeke of Soudal Quickstep did get away from the peloton in a solo bridge attempt. As odd as the Vervaeke move seemed, Q36.5 sent Xabier Azparren into the chasm to chase by himself, just in front of the peloton. Vervaeke stopped for a natural break to allow Azparren to latch on and the pair continued their chase. On the Fanja climb with 110KM to go, the peloton looked like it might split but only Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ and Orluis Aular of Movistar managed to get away. In the break, al Hsani dropped away but amazingly with 100KM to go, Azparren and Vervaeke made contact with the remaining four leaders to make six at the front. The break hit the 4KM Al Jabal climb and Al-Wahibi was dispatched. Further up the climb, Richards and Álvarez were dropped. At this point, there were no pictures of the peloton and we hadn't gotten a time gap for a long time but it seemed like the remaining three leaders had picked up the pace and were pressing on while Madouas and Aular had been caught by the bunch. Jayco AlUla rode in the peloton on Al Jabal and carried on over the flat road toward Al Jissah. The kilometers were ticking down and some reports said that the gap was over 4 minutes with 40KM to go. With such a large time gap, UAE-XRG, XDS-Astana, and Tudor Pro Cycling got involved with the chase. An official gap of 2 minutes was given at 14KM to go near the bottom of Al Jissah. Vervaeke dropped the others on the climb and crested the top solo with 9KM to go. Groupama-FDJ led the charge behind and started the descent with 40-50 riders remaining in the peloton. Vervaeke was dragging himself up the drag with 2KM to go as Groupama-FDJ were frantically pulling behind. The final kilometer came and went for Vervaeke but all of a sudden the peloton were on him, just 20 seconds back. Jayco AlUla hit the front on the final straight but Vervaeke dug in and had enough to fend them off by just 2 seconds for an impressive and memorable victory. His teammate Valentin Paret-Peintre led the bunch home with Sean Flynn of Picnic-PostNL in third. The sprint was chaotic with multiple crashes in the last 400M and the fallout may not be known until the morning after each rider has been examined.