Hammond sprints to fourth placeSo far the Tour of Oman has been a sprinter's contest and today's fourth stage from Ibri to Nakhal continued to follow that pattern. The wind split the peloton in the final part of the stage and those that made the lead group ended the 187 kilometre stage in a bunch sprint. Leigh Howard (HTC-Columbia) won the sprint ahead of Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step). Cervélo TestTeam's Roger Hammond finished in fourth. Bennati now takes the overall lead, as former leader Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) lost 1:05 when the wind split the peloton.
"The travel was as much of an endurance test as the race today," said Jens Zemke, Sports Director. "We started in the bus this morning and then waited at the airport to transfer by plane. After that it was into the bus again for a 130 km ride - all in all it took us five hours travelling to get to the start of today's stage. When we arrived the riders had only thirty minutes to prepare themselves before the start of the stage.
We started the stage quite well with TestTeam rider Joaquín Novoa part of a 6 rider break away. At this point Team Sky was controlling the bunch, Novoa performed super well under extreme weather conditions with the high temperatures in the desert. After 145 kilometres we came to a section of cross winds and pretty soon a group of 45 riders found each other but Team Sky completely missed this group. The gap between the two groups was around 30 seconds and that grew to more than a minute in the final. We had 4 riders in the front, Roger (Hammond), Andreas (Klier), Martin (Reimer), Gabriel (Rasch) and Joaquín who came from the break away group back into the bunch. Our team prepared the sprint for Roger and he came in fourth, a pretty good performance. Tomorrow we have a stage on the coast so we can expect the cross winds again."
Stage 4 : Ibri - Nakhal (187 km)1. Leigh Howard (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia
2. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
3. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
4. Roger Hammond (GB) Cervélo TestTeam