Oman: Mountain Mayhem!

Well, that was fun. After another 157 kilometers and a leg breaking 5.8 km climb, we still have no clear winner!

But we have narrowed things down quite a bit.

This stage was essentially the whole reason Robert Gesink chose to come to Oman. He is one of the best climbers in the sport, and proved it yet again when he opened a 47 second gap on the ridiculous 16% (in some spots) climb. For the most part Gesink had no need to use any kind of tactics. He just powered his way up the hill.

But did he power enough?

Because the second place finisher was the guy that almost every climbing contender really didn't want to see.
Edvald Boasson-Hagen and his Sky teammates rode a superb race which ended in a 2nd place for the young Norwegian sprinter/climber/time trialist/just about every other cycling skill in the book.

Sky went all out today and absolutely smashed the peloton on the flat leading up to the climb. This rapid increase of pace threw some of the potential contenders off their game and allowed Boasson-Hagen to slip away perfectly with the leaders. Boasson-Hagen rode powerfully up the extreme climb and then turned on the afterburners at the top to save all the seconds he could.

The final gap leading into tomorrow...44 (see seperate preview post).

Dries Devenyns wasn't far behind him to take 3rd, and right behind him were Giovanni Visconti and Christian Vandevelde.

Defending champion Fabian Cancellara put in a fabulous ride (for him) and came home 11th and lost just 1:34.

A few of the sprinters seized the opportunity to improve their climbing form today, and Haussler, Hondo, Boonen, and Goss all finished in the top 35 on the stage.

Everybody did finish, however, so it will be a full field for tomorrow's ITT and Sunday's sprint.

Rabobank has won 3 of 4 stages thus far, and Lars Boom gives them the potential to maybe grab another one tomorrow. He will have some fierce competition, though, and I will cover all of that on my Stage 5 Preview.
Stage Results
1. Robert Gesink
2. Edvald Boasson-Hagen
3. Dries Devenyns

General Classification
1. Robert Gesink
2. Edvald Boasson-Hagen -44
3. Dries Devenyns -57
4. Christian Vandevelde -1:03
5. Giovanni Visconti -1:03
6. Greg Van Avermaet -1:09
7. Maxime Monfort -1:15
8. Michael Albasini -1:15
9. Juan Antonio Flecha -1:22
10. Patrik Sinkewitz -1:33
11. Fabian Cancellara -1:44
12. Jakob Fuglsang -2:14
14. Alexandre Vinkourov -2:27