Despite recovering from a cold, Fabian Cancellara stormed to his first victory of the season, and the race lead, on the second stage of the Tour of Oman. The Trek Factory Racing rider demonstrated that his pre-Classics form is coming together as he won the uphill sprint into Al Bustan, beating Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) 2015 Tour Of Oman.
There were several attacks out of already diminishing peloton, as the general classification riders tried to shed their rivals. Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Valverde all had a go off the front in the final 10 kilometres.
Movistar did much of the pace setting and looked keen to prime Valverde for victory but it was BMC who had the numbers up front as the bunch rounded the final bend onto the long, wide drag up to the finish line as they looked to set Greg Van Avermaet up for what proved to be a frenetic sprint. However, it was Daniel Moreno (Katusha) who struck out first at 300 metres as he noticed a slowing in the pace.
Cancellara threw himself to the right of the road, with Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in tow, as Valverde and Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) chose the other side but it was Cancellara who took it in the five-man sprint.
