Alexey Lutsenko completed his hat-trick at the 2019 Tour of Oman after winning atop of Green Mountain today. Lutsenko overtook Fabian Grellier, part of the early breakaway, just a few hundred meters before today’s summit finish. With one hilly stage to go, the red jersey is now even more firmly on the shoulders of Alexey Lutsenko, who is set to win the Tour of Oman for the second consecutive time, the third win of the race in the history of Astana Pro Team (Vincenzo Nibali, 2016). The Kazakh champion won the ninth race for the team in 2019, making it the most successful team of the season so far.
“First of all, I want to dedicate this victory to my wife, who had a miscarriage of our twins last December. With these three wins, I want to honor them all three,” said Lutsenko. “My wife and I went through a very difficult time together, it was very hard. The team supported me all the time in this period, and I’m happy I can reward them as well for this support. It was a perfect race for us, as everything went exactly how we planned. The team protected me very well until the second part of the climb and then it was up to me to follow my most important rivals. My main goal was to keep the red jersey, but when I saw the last man from the breakaway just in front of me, I gave it my all and took the victory. It was an important and emotional victory for me and the team, and now we focus on tomorrow to secure the overall win.”
“Alexey Lutsenko and the team performed really well today, I just heard he did the climb in new record time,” added sports director Dmitriy Fofonov. “Of course, he had some backwind, but it shows his strength. It’s good to see him developing like this, we’re sure he’ll be ready for the most important goals of his season. For him personally, this is also a great victory, as he went through a difficult time. We gave him all the support and space he needed, because in the first place we are humans and a close team, in the second place we’re a professional cycling team. We’re close to a third overall win here in Oman, so tomorrow we’ll need to be focused again and make sure that Alexey doesn’t get in troubles during the day.”
The Queen Stage took off from Samayil, to finish after 152 kilometers atop of Al Jabal Al Akhdar (Green Mountain). A breakaway of six riders was created right from the start, creating a gap of a maximum of 6 minutes. One man of this group would lead the race until the final hundred meters, Fabian Grellier. Behind this break, the Astana Pro Team took control in the peloton to protect Alexey Lutsenko. During the decisive climb of the Green Mountain, other teams took over to make the race hard. Alexey Lutsenko was able to follow and a few kilometers before the finish he attacked together with Jesus Herrada and Domenico Pozzovivo.
In the final kilometer, Alexey Lutsenko attacked to overtake Fabian Grellier in the final hundred meters, to win his third stage in this edition of the Tour of Oman. The Kazakh champion is now leading the race with an advantage of 44” seconds on Domenico Pozzovivo and 47” on Jesus Herrada.
Tomorrow is the final stage of the 2019 Tour of Oman, starting in Al Mouj Muscat to finish in Matrah Corniche after 135.5 kilometers. A hilly stage, but normally a stage for the sprinters.
Stage 5 Brief Results:
- Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) at 03h 44′ 03″, B : 10″
- Fabian Grellier (Direct Energie) at 7″, B: 6″
- Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) at 11″, B: 4″
- Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) at 19″
- Elie Gesbert (Team Arkea-Samsic) s.t.
- Jesus Herrada (Cofidis Credit Solutions) s.t.
- Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) at 23″
General Classification After Stage 5:
- Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) at 18h 38′ 39″
- Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) at 44″
- Jesus Herrada (Cofidis Credit Solutions) at 47″
- Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) at 53″
- Elie Gesbert (Team Arkea-Samsic) at 1’03”
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