Tour of Oman 2022 - Preview

Get ready for a 6-day desert ride around Muscat! The race takes place in an unusual date, between Thursday and Tuesday, it is part of the Desert Treble which will conclude with UAE Tour at the end of February.

The route seemed boring at first, but I looked at percentages and holy hell, it's ridiculously amazing! The first stage finishes on a 3% hill in the last kilometre, hard enough to make an impact on potential results. Stage 2 and 6 are sprinters paradise, we will see if wind is gonna play a real role. There are 3 mountainous stages, where the race will be decided. Stage 3 finishes on a 2,2k 6,5% climb, good sprinters might be able to survive this. Stage 4 will take place in a short lap, tackling a short ~3 km climb with 9% gradient, the finish is gonna be flat, but there are gonna be fireworks on the climb.

The decisive stage will be stage 5. Although the overall denivele isn't that much, the final climb is one that might be mythical - Green Mountain averages 10.5% in almost 6 kilometres - an absolute beast where only the best climbers can come out on top.

Riders to watch:

Quick Step is gonna go for stage wins and overall here, but if I need to say something, I need to emphasize that this is a sprinter-oriented squad, everybody will work for Cavendish to win all the sprint stages, Fausto Masnada and Mauro Schmid will work together on the hills... recipe for success? Probable.

UAE goes to the neighbours with Rui Costa, who reached podium in Saudi Arabia, he can continue his good season start with some great results. DSM starts with 5 riders, but among them, there are Tour yellow jersey hopeful Soren Kragh Andersen, Baby Giro bronze medalist Henri Vandenabeele or U23 Paris-Tours winner Jonas Iversby Hvideberg - can't wait to see them in World Tour, finally.

Intermarchè-WG goes with two traditional climbers, Rein Taaramae and Jan Hirt, who will definitely cause some upsets in hard finishes. Cofidis has youngster Hugo Toumire and Davide Villella as their two main men, just as Arkea, who brought their highly acclaimed rider Elie Gesbert as their designated man to the race. The sprinter lineup is completed with some good names like Kaden Groves (BikeExchange), Milan Menten (Bingoal), or Mihkel Raim (Burgos-BH).

There are some really promising riders here as well, Filippo Zana could recover after a slow season start in first races, Anthon Charmig and Niklas Eg will definitely be able to bring Uno-X into top 5 here in GC as well, and Gianmarco Garofoli, who has never raced in such high quality peloton, but his dominant performance on climbs last year in U23 field can very much bring him into contention for overall victory.

Prediction: The best climber will win this race, and that, in my opinion, is Fausto Masnada.

⭐⭐⭐: Masnada

⭐⭐: Costa, Charmig, Taaramae

⭐: Vandenabeele, Hirt, Eg, Garofoli, Gesbert