As he sank into a seat outside the Astana team car just past the brow of the finishing hill above Quriyat, Vincenzo Nibali could already put his second place on stage two of the Tour of Oman behind Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) into perspective.
“He made this acceleration, in progressione, right in the last 100 metres and, well, I’m a climber…” Nibali trailed off and smiled. Nothing to be done.
Nibali was part of the elite leading group that was already taking shape as the pace ratcheted upwards on the approach to the 2.8-kilometre haul to the line. Under the impetus of Dimension Data and CCC-Sprandi, a further winnowing process took place as the road climbed sharply.
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Only the strongest remained in contention on the stirring finishing straight, where the bare mountainside seemed to form a natural terrace, and Boasson Hagen, as impressive as he was unfortunate at last week’s Tour of Qatar, scorched to an emphatic sprint victory ahead of Nibali and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC).
“When I saw him going, I just said, no, I can’t go after him,” Nibali admitted matter-of-factly. “His acceleration was very good. He’s coming from a couple of years where he was a bit so-so, maybe he had some physical problems, but we all know that Boasson Hagen, when he’s going well, is very fast. On a finish like this, he was going to be faster than everyone.”
At this early juncture of a season built around the Giro d’Italia and the Rio 2016 Olympics, Nibali’s focus is on performance rather than on results, and he betrayed little disappointment at missing out on the win here. Indeed, his effervescent start here – allied to a Tour de San Luis where he finished in crescendo – is a marked improvement on his early-season at the same point in both 2014 and 2015.
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