David Gaudu takes down Adam Yates on stage 3 of the Tour of Oman!

David Gaudu has won the third stage of the Tour of Oman as the strongest rider on the brutal final climb of the day. He escaped in the last meters and, although he tried, pre-race favourite Adam Yates could not beat him. Gaudu, of Groupama, is now the race leader ahead of the UAE Briton (6 seconds).

Stage 3 of the Tour of Oman finished on the hard climb to the Eastern Mountain, on a day where Nicolas Vinokourov, the son of the legendary Aleksander, was the one who lasted the longest in the breakaway.

On the climb, it was UAE that first pulled hard, thinking of Yates' GC ambitions, which made the group stretch a lot from the first ramps.

Then it was the Arkéa team that began to pull already 4 km from the finish line. Vinokourov was still more than two minutes ahead at that point, but the hardest part (by far) came in the last two kilometers.

Going into the last km, it was David Gaudu who tried first just past the Flamme Rouge, but he was quickly caught by Adam Yates. Gaudu tried again for Adam Yates and Chris Harper. Ruben Guerreiro was not far behind at the time despite the previous day's crash.

Gaudu tried again in the final straight and, although he tried, Adam Yates could not beat him and had to settle for second on the day. Thus, Yates came in second at 1 second and Damien Howson, from Q36.5, third at 5 seconds. Behind him, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Marco Brenner completed the top 5 at 13 seconds. Cian Uijtdebroeaks came home in sixth for Visma.

Ruben Guerreiro, probably hurting after the previous day's crash, finished in ninth. The best Spaniard was Mario Aparicio, 16th, 39 seconds behind the winner, just ahead of his Burgos Burpellet's BH teammate David Delgado.