Place Name: طريق بركة الموز - الجبل الأخضر
Address: طريق بركة الموز - الجبل الأخضر, ولاية نزوى, Ad Dakhiliyah Governorate, Oman
Details: February 11, 2026
After yesterday's finish in Sohar, the riders had a mammoth 300KM transfer inland to Nizwa for today's hockey stick stage to finish the Tour of Oman for 2026. Leaving Nizwa, the race goes East, out to Al Kahdra, before looping back West towards Izki. The riders swing off the highway at the UNESCO site of Birkat Al Mouz with 12KM to go for an intermediate sprint then the road will rise. Jabal Al Akhdar, otherwise known as Green Mountain, is 6KM long at an average of 10%. The climb goes up in steps however so the ramps are considerably steeper. Time gaps will likely be significant. In 2025, only two riders finished within 1 minute of the winner and the top 10 was spread across over 2 minutes. The GC is currently tight with 15 riders inside 45 seconds so it's still anyone's game.
Alpecin-Premier Tech either instigated or followed every attempt to form a break from the onset. It looked like a group of eight might get away after 10KM of racing but the action kicked off again in the peloton and the break was reset. With 140KM to go, the race was split into three pieces. There was a front group of six with at least ten chasing at 15 seconds and then peloton another 10 seconds behind. The lead group consisted of Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarché, Florian Dauphin of TotalEnergies, Erlend Blikra and Fredrik Dversnes of Uno-X Mobility, Thibaud Gruel of Groupama-FDJ United, and Juan Sebastián Molano of UAE-XRG. It was hard to understand the motivation for Molano to be in the group. He refused to take a pull and was a disruptive force among the group. Nevertheless, the lead group was able to build a gap of 30 seconds but the peloton wasn't done.
With 123KM to go, the break was caught and attacking started all over again. We didn't get great images of who was chasing the group but Alpecin-Premier Tech were aggressive once again with forcing a move. The break was finally established with 115KM to go with five riders including Dauphin and Dversnes again as well as Jonas Hem Hvideberg of Uno-X Mobility, Johan Price-Pejtersen of Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Vincenzo Albanese of EF-Education EasyPost. UAE-XRG took control of the peloton and the gap was allowed to grow.
After a while, UAE-XRG got some help from Caja-Rural Seguros RGA and Soudal Quickstep as those teams were looking to place Sebastian Berwick and William Junior Lecerf, respectively, well on the stage and GC. The gap got out to around 3 minutes and with 25KM remaining, the break still had 2 minutes 30 seconds. Both break and peloton were visibly more urgent in their effort as the balance of power was shifting towards the leaders. At 15KM to go, the gap was 1 minute 55 seconds and held firm at the same margin 5KM later as the break passed through Birkat Al Mouz.
The gradients started to slowly grind upwards as the leading group of five entered the canyon road. With 6KM to go, the official Jabal Al Akhdar began and ramps went straight up to over 9%. Price-Pejtersen pulled the parachute but the others continued on with a gap of 1 minute 45 seconds. After about a kilometer on the climb, the break had disintegrated. Everyone was weaving across the road to flatten the gradient, meanwhile the peloton was closing in fast. Dauphin and Dversnes got over the first step and hit a brief moment of respite before the next ramp.
Action came in the peloton with 3.5KM to go as Adam Yates of UAE-XRG attacked and Dversnes, last man from the break, was caught. The group was still at least 30 riders at this point but that didn't discourage Yates. His tactic seemed to be, ride as hard as I can for as long as I can and see who can follow. When Yates finally backed off on one of the flat sections inside 3KM to go, there were still 10 guys with him. Yates kicked again on the next ramp at 2KM to go which spit race leader Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla out the back. Nairo Quintana of Movistar countered just like he did on Eastern Mountain but Yates hit once more, catching Quintana and trimming the group down to just Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana, Luke Plapp of Jayco AlUla with Quintana latching on the back. Quintana was then dropped and Scaroni was distanced but a guardian angel in the form of Cristián Rodríguez saved the day for Scaroni and dragged the Italian back to the front. Quintana got back on as did Paul Double of Jayco AlUla to make six leaders going into the final kilometer.
Rodríguez led the group until 500M to go when Plapp attacked in a bid for the win. He got a gap which was still 10 seconds with 150M to go but Yates was winding things up one last time. Plapp reached the barriers at 100M but Scaroni had attacked from behind and passed Plapp like he was standing still to take the victory for XDS-Astana. Rodríguez had a little left in the tank as well and was able to come home in second place at 3 seconds with Plapp and Yates in third and fourth at 6 seconds.
The GC was completely turned around with Scaroni taking the overall win by 24 seconds to Rodríguez to make an impressive 1-2 for XDS-Astana. Yates grabbed the final podium spot at 44 seconds on countback from Mauro Schmid and Paul Double who finished on the same time.
Tags: Tour of Oman, 2026, Tour of Oman 2026, Stage 5, February, Nizwa, Jabal Al Akhdhar, Baptiste Veistroffer, Florian Dauphin, Erlend Blikra, Fredrik Dversnes, Thibaud Gruel, Juan Sebastián Molano, Jonas Hem Hvideberg, Johan Price-Pejtersen, Vincenzo Albanese, Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana, Christian Scaroni, Luke Plapp, Cristián Rodríguez, Paul Double