Oman: Gesink Stuns Everyone! (even himself)

The questions leading up to this stage were "Will Gesink be able to retain enough of his 44 sec lead?" and some even wondered "How many will move ahead of Gesink?"

And it's hard not to ask those questions, considering Gesink had never won an ITT in his professional career and the memory of that collapse last year in Switzerland. But Gesink was on a mission today.

He not only retained his lead, but he extended. In fact, HE WON THE WHOLE STAGE. He blew away many of the TT specialists, and his nearest competitor was fellow climber Giovanni Visconti (who moved up to 3rd overall) 16 seconds back.

This was a climbers ITT, so that eliminated many of the traditional time trialists like Phinney (86th -3:41) and Meyer (20 -1:27) but Cancellara stuck in there pretty well. He was clearly uncomfortable with the route but still managed to get home 4th (-27) and move up to 6th overall.

But what about Boasson-Hagen?
On paper Boasson-Hagen had a decent ride and he finished 5th (-29). This was just enough to hold onto his 2nd place, but what happened to contending for the lead?

Well, Robert Gesink's success was a big part of it but Eddy BH would have been a serious contender for the stage had it not been for a run-in with a race helicopter.

For those that don't know, a helicopter's downdraft wreaks havoc on any cyclist but especially on a rider riding alone. The wind caused Boasson-Hagen to temporarily lose control of his bike and almost crash. But even worse it completely killed all of his speed and momentum, and probably cost him anywhere from 20 to 40 seconds off his finishing time. This would have certainly made the stage finish exciting, but even Team Sky directeur Servais Knaven admits that Gesink would have still held on to the overall lead comfortably.

Still, add this "rogue TV helo" to the increasingly long list of blunders and mishaps at this week's race.

This win means that (barring a crash or a miracle attack) Gesink has essentially locked up the win this week.
Stage Results
1. Robert Gesink
2. Giovanni Visconti
3. Marco Pinotti

General Classification
1. Robert Gesink
2. Edvald Boasson-Hagen -1:13
3. Giovanni Visconti -1:19
4. Michael Albasini -1:52
5. Christian Vandevelde -2:04
6. Fabian Cancellara -2:11

And Rabobank's fine week continues (4 of 5 stages so far). And they might not be done yet either.
The finishing 50k is so flat that you can probably roll a ball all the way to the finish line, so I don't imagine any attacks of significance to Gesink's lead. Rabobank will be calling on either Theo Bos or Graeme Brown to get them their 5th stage. There is that one climb right in the beginning, but the riders have enough time to recover from that and prepare for the sprint.