Preview Tour of Oman 2026 stage 2 - Visma, Scaroni and Schmid battle for uphill sprint win
CyclingSaturday, 07 February 2026 at 12:12
From the 7th to the 11th of February the peloton takes on the Tour of Oman, the continuation of the Middle Eastern calendar, with a stage-race that features sprints, explosive days and steep mountains. We preview stage 2, which is estimated to start and finish at 07:35 and 12:20CET.
Meanwhile the Tour of Oman has grown since its debut in 2010 into one of the most respected early-season stage races outside Europe. Organized by (ASO), the race became a regular fixture on the UCI calendar, first as part of the UCI Asia Tour and, more recently, in the UCI ProSeries—a status it retains in 2026. It is a traditional early-season race for many years now, chosen by the riders due to the warm weather conditions, variety of stage profiles and also proper climbing tests early in the year.
The race has a list of winners that is to say the least enviable. Fabian Cancellara won its first edition back in 2010, whilst over the years Chris Froome has used the race twice and won the overall classification - one against Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans; Vincenzo Nibali won it back in 2016 before conquering the Giro d'Italia; and other top riders such as Matteo Jorgenson and Adam Yates have now won the most recent editions in the 2020's. In 2025 Yates defended his title successfully, having consistency in the race's climbs to bring UAE a top victory.
Read also
Profile Al Rustaq Fort - Yitti Hills
Stage 2: Al Rustaq Fort - Yitti Hills, 191 kilometers
The second stage of the race is the one best suited to the puncheurs, and will provide an interesting challenge between them and the sprinters. The stage features some climbing late on after a flat start, with a climb of 3.7 kilometers at 8.8% ending with 41 kilometers to go.
Then two smaller ones, one of 1 kilometer at 8.5% which ends with a mere 14 kilometers to go, and the second coinciding with the finish. This will be in the Yitti Hills, a 1.8-kilometer long climb at 5.4%, however one where the first half has some much steeper gradients and will quickly take the riders to the limit.
Prediction Tour of Oman 2026 stage 2:
*** Axel Zingle, Christian Scaroni, Mauro Schmid
** Valentin Paret-Peintre, Roger Adrià
* William Lecerf Junior, Quentin Pacher, Diego Ulissi, Alberto Bettiol, Vincenzo Albanese, Luke Plapp, Rick Pluimers, Amaury Capiot, Bryan Coquard
** Valentin Paret-Peintre, Roger Adrià
* William Lecerf Junior, Quentin Pacher, Diego Ulissi, Alberto Bettiol, Vincenzo Albanese, Luke Plapp, Rick Pluimers, Amaury Capiot, Bryan Coquard
Pick: Mauro Schmid
How: Reduced bunch sprint
Original: Rúben Silva
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Roger de Vlaeminck again?
KerisVroom07-02-2026 - lol, it beginsantipodeanpedalfan07-02-2026
- Who knows, all we can say is whatever he’s decided it’s worked pretty well. Would it not be for a certain TP, he’d have one of the best GT palmares ever (even leaving Sepp his Vuelta to avoid hypotheticals).Mistermaumau07-02-2026
- I cannot understand what he is bitching about.It sounds like he is pissed off that he can't find a way to be relevant in races.We live in a time when a few riders dominate.The sport has evolved that way through training and nutritional advances and some are more adaptive than others.Whats new?
Brucegel07-02-2026 - We maybe but riders in the peleton remember stuff lime this better and will think twice about letting him tag along again.Mistermaumau07-02-2026
- Maybe not this year but at some point, he won’t be able to resist like Jonas can, it’s in his nature to try.Mistermaumau07-02-2026
- This is true, we are lucky to be living this age and witnessing so many talents.Mistermaumau07-02-2026
- Yes, hence why so many contemplate “accidents” to murder someone. Luckily, insurance companies are quite good at noticing suspicious links between victims and perpetrators when it comes to avoiding pay-outs. In this day and age of constant filming of everything, it’s inacceptable you still cannot use footage of this kind of incident to legally pursue someone, for sure that would calm a large proportion of people who obviously feel untouchable in their protected bubble.Mistermaumau07-02-2026
- I guess we’ll just have to live with athletes willing to be paid by dubious nation states, betting, UPC (ultra processed crap), big petro,:pharma, betting and maybe one day data, coz very little else that isn’t banned has large enough margins to cover the ever growing salaries and costs.Mistermaumau07-02-2026
- Most interesting in this is that rival teams are so casual about discussing/comparing/revealing stuff. Bet this doesn’t happen in F1. Training wise, every type of training helps and riders/teams would be silly to focus on just one which will bring anyone to 80% of their potential. Unfortunately, though another 10-15% will be achieved with a teams’ training set-up, that last 5% will always be rider specific according to what they are most lacking and works best for them, also mentally. In any case, the type of training that will help your background level most is the type you’re not doing much or for the discipline you’re least good at. You won’t get great individual from everyone with a rigid group method, if you want to simplify your work by sticking to that, you have to select only riders who react best to the same methods.Mistermaumau07-02-2026
Loading
Write a comment