Oman, it’s another Middle-Eastern adventure

Despite the tendency to lump this week’s Tour of Oman with the flat, dusty, monotonous, and largely ignored by the locals sprint-fest that was last week’s Tour of Qatar, the second leg of professional cycling’s petrodollar Gulf adventure will be a more interesting race.

For starters, it actually has a few hills, and even a summit finish.

It also has a start list which includes a plethora of riders expected to contest the GC at this year’s Grand Tours, many of whom will be flexing their legs for the first time this season.

With that in mind, it’s not worth expecting too much from the likes of Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Joaquim Rodriguez and Vincenzo Nibali first up, but it will be interesting to see who’s paying each other the most attention.

Hopefully we see a few sneaky attacks to test each other’s legs and see who’s really up for it.

Last year’s winner Peter Velits (OPQS) returns to defend his title after a 2012 season that failed to match his best results in Grand Tours, but reaped a world championship win in the team time trial, and the Slovakian national time trial champion’s jersey.

The top ranks of sprinters are also well represented, with Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel and Tom Boonen expected to vie with Matt Goss for stage wins.

Goss will be supported by the same leadout men that he took to the Tour Down Under, namely Jens Mouris and Daryl Impey, but the addition of Brett Lancaster and Baden Cooke will add more steel to the Orica-GreenEDGE arsenal.

It really is all about stage wins for OGE in Oman, without a real GC contender the team will be aggressive in the flatter stages and probably try to get Fumi Beppu and Jens Keukeleire in the breaks on the hillier stages.

Philippe Gilbert will join Cadel Evans in a strong BMC squad that includes the in-form Brent Bookwalter and Taylor Phinney (both fresh from podium finishes in Qatar on the back of a strong team time trial), and classics man Greg van Avermaet.

Evans hasn’t raced since August 2012, so no doubt there will be plenty of attention paid to his form and health.

Gilbert has at least raced this season, even if he was flat at the TDU and seemed at times to treat it like a training ride. Gilbert won’t be aiming to hit peak form until the Ardennes classics in April, but he is such a talented rider that a stage win in Oman is still a distinct possibility.

Tom Boonen returns for OPQS, following surgery to fix an infected elbow. Boonen usually enjoys the Middle Eastern racing, but injuries and illness have disrupted his preparation for 2013.

This will give his cobbled classics rivals some joy, and from the sounds of his Twitter feed, a big block of training last week may have buried any chance of a strong showing in Oman.

Too soon for Tommeke, I feel.

As for Contador, Rodriguez, Wiggins, Froome, and Nibali, this race will be all about establishing some form lines before Paris-Nice and Tirreno Adriatico. Keep a close eye on the office politics between Wiggins and Froome, as the various mutterings about who will lead the team in which Grand Tour continue to pile up.

How will Oman play out? Well, Stages 1, 3, and 6 are clearly given to the sprinters, albeit with the occasional slight incline throughout each day.

Stage 2 will also probably go to a sprinter, but the inclusion of two short climbs inside the last 20km may be an opportunity for a punchy attacker or a small breakaway.

Stage 4 is the queen stage, culminating in a summit finish atop the 1235m Jabal al Akhdhar (Green Mountain), which will almost certainly decide the overall winner.

Stage 5 is a rolling stage, which finishes with three lumpy circuits around Bousher Alamrat: two of these are classified for KoM points, and the third is an intermediate sprint, which probably says all you need to know about how difficult the climb is.

This is really another chance for a breakaway.

So, that’s the Tour of Oman. A classic of the stage racing genre by no means, but nevertheless it should provide a good deal more variation and intrigue than Qatar’s Cavendish extravaganza. I’m looking forward to seeing which GC contender draws first blood.