Oman: Bos Wins Again!

Today's stage was probably more of the calm before the storm. And I'm sure Theo Bos was perfectly fine with that.

Bos took advantage of the last sprint stage until Sunday and grabbed his 2nd win of the race (he also won the first stage). Daniele Bennati finished yet again right behind the winner and took home another 2nd place.

Matt Goss took 3rd, and the bonus gave him just enough time to hold his lead over Bennati. Boasson-Hagen kept his strong first week of racing going with a 5th place and Qatar standout Heinrich Haussler rounded out the top 5.

You can tell who's on form and who's not, as it seems like it's the same group of guys fighting it out for every stage. You can also tell who's not on form...

Mark Cavendish's hard luck continued as he could do no better than 9th. Thor Hushovd and Tom Boonen fared even worse and were nowhere near the front of the field as the group approached the sprint. Rookie Taylor Phinney was just a bit behind where he needed to be on the sprint but still managed a 13th place finish.

It was a pretty routine finish for a stage that looked like it might end up differently.
A five man early-morning breakaway (Marcus Burghardt, Patrik Sinkewitz, Mark Kumpo, Vitaliy Kondrut, Kevin Claeys) was allowed a massive 7 minute advantage at one point, but the peloton was able to methodically reel them in as the 5 riders began to fatigue later in the stage.

Today was really the last chance for a breakaway to survive (after today it's climb, TT, sprint) so it's unfortunate for the stage hunters that they did not get at least 1. But the sprinters will take it any day.

Stage 3 Results

1. Theo Bos

2. Daniele Bennati

3. Matt Goss

General Classification

1. Matt Goss

2. Daniele Bennati -2

3. Edvald Boasson-Hagen -10

4. Pieter Serry -11

5. Patrik Sinkewitz -11

15. Heinrich Haussler -17

18. Christian Vandevelde -17

32. Jakob Fuglsang -17

34. Cam Meyer -17

40. Fabian Cancellara -17

44. Joaquin Rodriguez -17

50. Alexandre Vinokourov -17

57. Robert Gesink -17

62. Michael Albasini -17

Stage 4

That general classification won't look like that tomorrow. The sprinters will have likely dropped and climbers like Gesink and Rodriguez will be on the top. I would have to put those 2 as my favorites to win but don't count out Vinkourov, Vandevelde, or Fuglsang either.

Gesink and Rodriguez are both weak time trialists, so they will need to build themselves a bit of a buffer over stronger TT guys like Vino or Fuglsang if they want a chance at the overall win.

The wild card is Edvald Boasson-Hagen. After 3 sprints, you have to wonder if he feels like hauling himself over this climb but if he can just stay within a minute than he could potentially gain that back on the ITT.