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Sprint Controversy in Oman as Lutsenko Takes Overall Title

Kevin Curry

Kevin Curry

— 1 min read
Sprint Controversy in Oman as Lutsenko Takes Overall Title

Kazakh national champion Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) took his second overall title at the Tour of Oman today, after winning three of its six stages.  Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) stood beside him on the GC podium.

The victory puts team Astana at an incredible 10 wins very early in the year. Five of those are stage races and all five were with different riders.

  • Alexey Lutsenko – Tour of Oman
  • Tour Colombia – Miguel Ángel López
  • Tour de la Provence – Gorka Izagirre
  • Vuelta Murcia – Luis Leon Sanchez
  • Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana – Ion Izagirre

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuJRcj6hhg1/

The final stage day didn’t close out without a few fireworks.  A big crash at 50km to go slimmed the field a bit. Stage 1 winner Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) was forced to abandon.  Domenico Pozzovivo also went down, but was able to finish with some nice road rash visible in podium photos.

Likely the biggest story of the day, though, was the tight and controversial final sprint. Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) won the final stage of the Tour of Oman in a very tight sprint against Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Davide Ballerini (Astana). Andre Greipel (Arkea-Samsic)  entered a complaint to the race jury  that Nizzolo be relegated for nearly causing a crash, but the jury has taken no such action. You can watch the action for yourself:

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