Our team was among the most active in the hilly one-day race that took place Friday.
The third edition of the Muscat Classic put on the table a familiar course, comprising six classified climbs which gradually whittled down the peloton long before the original breakaway of the day was caught. As soon as things calmed down a bit inside the last hour of the race, one rider went clear and pressed on to build a gap on the up-and-down terrain around Al Bustan.
Twenty kilometers from the finish, a three-man group featuring former U23 Dutch Champion Pepijn Reinderink rode away and joined the lone leader of the race, quickly opening a 30-second gap that applied some serious pressure on the peloton. It took a huge combined effort and the gruelling double-digit gradients of the short Al Jissah climb for those behind to reduce the deficit and eventually make the catch just a few kilometers from the finish, just as they were exiting a roundabout.
With no team controlling the small peloton, it came down to a messy finish in Muscat, which Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling) won. Soudal Quick-Step was represented by two riders in the top ten: newcomer Valentin Paret-Peintre, who took sixth, and Mauri Vansevenant – runner-up at the Tour of Oman in 2023, who came over the line in ninth position.
Photo credit: ©Alex Broadway / Getty Images
