At Yitti Hills, on stage 2 of the Tour of Oman, Tom Donnenwirth was about to fight for the win on Sunday, or at least for a podium spot. Unfortunately, the French puncher was stopped dead in his attempt by a crash in the final sprint, 150 metres from the finish. Although he got back up without major damage, he still lost a great opportunity, which was made possible by the work of all his teammates in the last ten kilometres. David Gaudu crossed the finish line in eleventh position and now sits in 4th place overall, 11 seconds behind Louis Vervaeke, winner of the day.
Things got serious this Sunday on the Tour of Oman, where a demanding final was supposed to give an opportunity to the punchers. Before entering the final’s sequence of climbs, however, a long 150-kilometre section had to be covered, and it proved to be somewhat eventful. “A lot of teams didn’t want to take control of the race because the stage was long, it was a bit confusing and the breakaway took a big gap,” explained Thierry Bricaud. The breakaway first went with four men before Louis Vervaeke and Xabier Azparren joined them. The lead of this group went up to six minutes without anyone willing to take on the chase in the back. So, when a small hill came after ninety kilometers, Valentin Madouas attacked and went away with Orluis Aular. “The stage was completely messy”, explained Thierry. “Our idea was for the peloton to continue riding fast so that the breakaway would not take too much time, but we didn’t want to sacrifice the team either. Valentin managed to get out, and that at least forced the peloton to take responsibility and take on the pursuit.”
“Tom is obviously frustrated,” Thierry Bricaud
Although the Breton closed three minutes on the leading group, he was never able to bridge across and was even caught by the peloton about thirty kilometers from the finish. At that moment, the breakaway still had a lead of nearly five minutes, forcing the peloton into a frenetic pursuit in order to stay in contention. The gap was reduced to 2’30 with fifteen kilometers to go, then Clément Braz Afonso made a big push on the climb of Al Jissah, twelve kilometres from the finish. Vervaeke, who had gone alone, still had a gap of more than a minute. “The goal was simple: try to win the stage with Tom,” explained Thierry. “We knew we had a good team and that others would be missing domestiques in the final. From the moment we still had the numbers, we had to give Tom a chance. We rode a great final and the whole team worked hard to make sure it would be a bunch finish.” Lorenzo Germani, Rudy Molard and even David Gaudu gave their all in the last hilly kilometres, but Vervaeke was still a few seconds ahead when he passed the flamme rouge.Behind the Belgian, probably too far away to be caught, the sprint began for the remaining places. “Unfortunately, Tom crashed after a rider in front of him had a chain jump,” reported Thierry. The Frenchman, who got back up after a few minutes, was therefore unable to obtain the desired result today, with David Gaudu being the first rider of the team to cross the line, in eleventh place, two seconds behind Vervaeke. “Tom has just moved up to the WorldTour, he is only competing in his second race, and the team trusts him, so he wanted to do well. He is obviously frustrated not to have paid back the team because everyone sacrificed for him without a second thought, but that is part of cycling. We are not rewarded, but we saw a great team, there are three stages left, and it is promising.” On Monday, the team will have the opportunity to take revenge on a steeper finish at Eastern Mountain (4.7 km at 7.6%).
