A new race for the team, the hilly Muscat Classic made for a hard day in the saddle with some steep climbs in the finale. Riding well as a group, it was the first race of the season for many in the team so getting back into the racing rhythm was important. Unfortunately, Fabio Jakobsen had a small crash after a flat but he was able to remount okay and continue, before stopping at the first passage of the finish line to recover fully ahead of tomorrow’s Tour of Oman opener. Back in the peloton, the rest of the team worked well together to bring Warren Barguil, Frank van den Broek and Tobias Lund Andresen into position for the climbs. There the pace really went up as the peloton had to work had to chase the break, with Lund Andresen having to let go of the bunch. Van den Broek then did an excellent job to follow multiple attacks in the closing 20 kilometres. Barguil dug deep on the last ascent and came over the top in the main group, eventually showing a good turn of speed to take a good sixth place at the line.
Barguil expressed: “It’s my first race of the year and it’s nice to be back with the team. At the start of the day we thought Tobias could be an option at the finish but it went too hard on the climbs in the end. Then with Frank and I we tried to follow the attacks. Frank did a really good job to follow a lot of the moves. On the last climb I then went full to follow in the bunch. I tried to do the sprint from the front in the wheel of Coquard. In the end sixth place isn’t a crazy result but it’s also not bad, and it’s good to start racing again.”