Team Sky’s Chris Froome has kick-started his 2014 season in magnificent style with a second successive win at the Tour of Oman. The 2013 Tour de France winner took the lead on Saturday’s penultimate stage with a summit finish and did more than enough on the final day – finishing safely in the bunch to maintain his 26-second advantage – to take overall victory, despite André Greipel flying to his third stage success on the Matrah Corniche. The overall time for Froome in Oman was 22h 02’ 26”; BMC Racing’s Tejay van Garderen took the second overall podium spot (+26) with Rigoberto Urán Urán (omega Pharma-Quick Step) taking third on +31 seconds.
Commenting after the race Froome said: ‘It was flat out from the gun today and really tough racing. There were GC guys attacking and sprint teams also trying to get someone in the break, which meant they didn’t have to work as hard later in the race… Even at the end it was really tricky because we knew we had to be in a good position and not risk any significant time splits, but we achieved what we set out to achieve.’
However, even this early in the season, Froome clearly has his sites on an historic second TdF win, commenting: ‘I still feel like I’ve got a lot of work to do – a lot of room for improvement – but at this stage in the season, I’m where I need to be. This has been a really good experience for me as it’s the start of my build up to the Tour de France…’
Full details on the Tour of Oman at tourofoman.om further Team Sky news at teamsky.com and you can follow Chris Froome on Twitter @chrisfroome
