Tour of Oman 2025 Stage 4

February 11, 2025 When we think of racing in the Middle East, this is what comes to mind for most people. The 180KM route takes the riders from the Oman Across Ages Museum to the Oman Convention and Exhibition Center on wide, flat, open roads through barron terrain. Kongphob Thimachai of Roojai Insurance, Abdulrahman Alyaqoobi of the Oman National Team, and Muhammad Haizam Mohd Shabri of Terengganu Cycling went from the flag but their chances were next to none to make it all the way to finish in front. Three riders became two when Alyaqoobi dropped back to the Visma-Lease a Bike led peloton. The pair kept things interesting by contesting each of the Intermediate Sprints but it was a lonely day to be out front. The peloton started to accelerate with 20KM to go as riders were being whirled around the washing machine in a constant churn of moving up and sliding back. Thimachai was caught with 14KM to go as a consequence of this fighting and infinite repositioning. The GC teams spent their energy staying safe at the front until 3KM to go when the sprint trains took over. Uno-X Mobility played it smart by sitting at the back of the bunch and waiting until 2KM to go. They knew they would have 4 lanes of highway to move up and when they did, their team was all together and looked domimant. They were matched man for man by Visma-Lease a Bike however. Uno-X Mobility's Stian Fredheim was the final lead out man for Erlend Blikra and dropped Blikra off with around 200M to go. It looked like a bit of a headwind and was slightly too long for Blikra. Olav Kooij of Visma-Lease a Bike came around Blikra with 100M to go and would not be challenged for his second stage win. Giacomo Nizzolo of Q36.5 took second with Orluis Aular of Movistar grabbing third, Blikra came in for fourth.