Scaroni conquers Green Mountain to break Adam Yates' Tour of Oman streak

Yates, who was chasing a third straight overall win, took up most of the running on the final haul up Green Mountain, repeatedly forcing the pace after his initial acceleration with 3km to go, but the UAE Team Emirates-XRG was unable to press clear alone.

Although Yates’ pace burnt off red jersey Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), he still had Scaroni, Cristian Rodríguez (XDS-Astana), Luke Plapp, Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla) and a defiant Nairo Quintana (Movistar) for company beneath the flamme rouge.

Plapp, who had just paced himself back up to the leaders, struck out with a solo attack with 500m to go, while it was left to Yates to lead the pursuit behind. But just as the Briton came within touching distance of Plapp, Scaroni launched the decisive acceleration.

The Italian shot out of the chasing group and blasted past Plapp at the last to claim the stage honours, while his teammate Rodríguez came through for second. Plapp held on for third at six seconds, while Yates came in just behind in fourth.

Scaroni claims final overall victory by 24 seconds from Rodríguez, while Yates moved up to third overall, 44 seconds down on the Italian.

The final day of the Tour of Oman was all about the last climb, but that didn’t dissuade a break was composed of Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Florian Dauphin (TotalEnergies), Jonas Hem Hvideberg and Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) from forging clear early on, and they hit the foot of the 6km haul to the finish with a lead of 1:50 over the peloton.

The move began to break up on the lower slopes of the climb, while their lead over the chasers began to contract rapidly. Dversnes was the last man standing out in front after he shook off Dauphin, but the UAE-led yellow jersey group was closing fast on behalf of Yates.

Dversnes would be caught with just under 3km to go, by which point Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) had surprisingly been distanced by the yellow jersey group as Yates sprung onto the offensive.

Scaroni was the first to react to Yates’ initial acceleration, with ten more riders, including Quintana and the red jersey Schmid) quickly bridging across.

Yates continued to set the tempo thereafter and he dialled up the pressure again with 2km to go, an effort that distanced Schmid. Only Quintana, Scaroni and Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla) could follow Yates’ pace, with Plapp and Rodríguez rejoining ahead of the final kilometre.

Yates had the pedigree on this climb, but Scaroni has been one of the form riders of the early season, starting with his win at the Classica Camp de Morvedre, and he continued his fine run here.