Team Astana in front on day two of Tour of Oman

Muscat: Alexey Lutsenko has put Team Astana in front at the end of day two of the Tour of Oman, followed closely by Alexander Kristoff of UAE Team Emirates, and Ryan Gibbons of Dimension Data.
The result saw Lutsenko finished his time in four hours, seven minutes and 19 seconds, three seconds in front of Kristoff and a further three in front of Gibbons.
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“Today was a really great victory for me and my team, but last year, after taking third place in this stage, I am very happy to win it this time,” he said. “But tomorrow, we have one nice stage, both for me and many, many riders. I attacked this in the final climb and decided to go fast in the final four or five kilometres. This is a little bit more motivation for our sports director, but yes, I am very happy.”
Although the result sees Lutsenko lead the charts on the day, overall, he is still second: Alexander Kristoff leads overall with a score of seven hours, one minute and 56 seconds, while Lutsenko lies three seconds behind, and Ryan Gibbons is a further 12 second behind him. At present, Alexander Kristoff holds both the red jersey, which is given to the best individual time, and the green jersey, which is given to the person with the highest points.
Ryan Gibbons has his hand on the white jersey, which is awarded to the best young rider, and Preben Van Hecke of Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise is in the lead for the yellow jersey, which is given to the most aggressive rider. Totalling a distance of 156.5 kilometres, the second stage of this year’s Tour of Oman began at the Oman Royal Cavalry base and ended at Al Bustan. The stage is characterised as being hilly. The next stage of the Tour of Oman will take place on February 18, and will begin in Shatti Al Qurum and end in Quriyat, for a total distance of 192.5 kilometres.
The first stage of Tour of Oman kicked off on Saturday, while Alexander Kristoff from the UAE Team Emirates was announced the winner. After covering a distance of 138.5 kilometres, Kristoff topped the sprint clocking in at 2h54m50s, ahead of two Frenchmen, Bryan Coquard from Vital Concept finishing at 2h54m54s and Nacer Bouhanni from Cofidis at 2h54m56s.
The Norwegian, who has been participating in the race since it first began, dominated stage one and now leads the race. He wore the classification jersey after the win on Saturday – the ninth victory for him in Oman.