The anticipated attack from Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) duly arrived near the summit of the day’s final climb up Bousher Al Amarat, but Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) has proved unflappable at this Tour of Oman, and the Frenchman’s insurgence was quickly snuffed out.
Nibali, winner on the relentless grind up Green Mountain the previous afternoon, could afford to ride on the defensive here, as he held a 15-second buffer over Bardet coming into Saturday’s penultimate stage, an undulating run from the pretty coastal spot of Yiti to the tough finish circuit around the Ministry of Tourism.
“Today was hard stage because we had to do that climb three times in the finale, and it was made tougher by the fact that we had the effects of yesterday’s efforts in our legs,” Nibali said after dismounting the podium. “My team controlled it well and I had [Michele] Scarponi and [Jakob] Fuglsang with me in the finale, so it was perfect.
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“It was a nervous stage, very difficult. In years past, this has been a very difficult stage to manage, but my condition was very good, and together with Fuglsang, we looked to control things on the last time up the climb.”
Fuglsang, who lies third overall, 24 seconds down, had served as Nibali’s guard dog on Green Mountain on Friday, and he performed a similar task here. The Dane helped to peg back Bardet’s move over the top of the final climb after Ag2r-La Mondiale had attempted to rid Nibali of his Astana guard on the previous two ascents.
“Bardet attacked right at the top of the climb but then right at the start of the descent, there was another section where the road went up again, and Pozzovivo tried there. But we always closed down the moves, we were very attentive,” Nibali said.
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