Success and leadership in Oman for Movistar’s Matteo Jorgenson

The American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), 23, claimed victory in the third stage, which also gives him the status of the new leader of the Tour of Oman, after the 152 kilometers they have to cover between Al Khobar and Jabal Haat.

Jorgenson starred in his first professional victory by exploiting his climbing skills on the steepest sections of the day, leading to an unprecedented finish at Al Hamra (ascent of Jabal Hatt, with 4.6 kilometers with a gradient of 8.5%) to also get the best of another rising young talent, Belgian Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), and Frenchman Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën).

Jorgenson not only won the third stage, but also claimed the leader’s red jersey to face the fourth day of competition, the penultimate stage before the ascent of Jabal Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain), where the peloton will face another Explosive finish at Yitti Hills .

On the day itself, at the start of Al Khobar, five riders quickly jumped to the front of the peloton, Johan Meens (Bingoal WB), Alejandro Franco (Burgos-BH), Said Al Rahbi (Oman National Team), Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health) and Mohd Harrif Saleh (Terengganu Polygon), who achieved the maximum advantage of three and a half minutes, while in the peloton Jesús Herrada (Cofidis), until now leading after winning the second day, took over the “final .” for the breakaways to try to defend their privileged position in the race.

So, Cofidis and UAE pulled the head of the peloton, led by Al Rahbi and Saleh, who eventually ended up on the hook, although Saleh led the 93.1 kilometer sprint to defend the gold jersey from his teammate, Jeroen Meijers.

Meens, Franco and Bassett entered the final 50km with a three and a half minute lead and just ten kilometers later UAE Team Emirates attacked again with one of their riders joining the chase.

Jorgenson cut the gap to one minute and 40 seconds in the last twenty kilometers, and less than a minute with twelve kilometers to go, but the attackers were caught before the final 4.6km climb at 8.5 percent. , with sections of about 15 % in the last two kilometers.

Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), already in the top five in Qurayyat, saw an opportunity to make a change, despite the attempts of Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) he wanted to strengthen the test, but the Kazakh (twice winner of Tour of Oman ), Jorgenson’s sprint was unstoppable in the final 200 meters.

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