Muscat Classic: Mauro Schmid beats Adam Yates to victory as Jayco AlUla play out perfect finale

Given that there were no less than six categorised climbs all packed into the finale of Oman’s one-day Classic, on a very hot day, it was always likely that only the bravest of souls would attempt anything like a long-distance break, and only France’s Baptiste Veistroffer proved to be up to the challenge.

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The Lotto-Intermarché rider made it to the first and longest of the six, the 3.8-kilometre Al Jabal Road, with a five-minute advantage. He then continued to maintain his lead as he ploughed over the Hamriyah and then the Al Jissah – the latter for the first time of two.

The climbs were piling up, however, and as he crowned the Wadi Al Kabir and Hamriyah, his advantage was shrinking, largely thanks to XDS-Astana’s Alberto Bettiol and a combination of hard work by Tudor and Soudal-QuickStep.

Finally reeled in with 23 kilometres to go, Lotto-Intermarché also put their shoulder to the collective wheel, meaning that by the time they hit the foot of the Al Jisah climb, there were fewer than 30 riders remaining.

Britain’s Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla), who’d already shown his aptitude for short, punchy climbs after he won the Tour of Guangxi on just such an ascent last year, opened up hostilities and lined out the much-reduced peloton, but Yates was ready and waiting to storm past.

So, too, were Jayco duo Schmid and Plapp, and as they crowned Al Jisah with around 20 seconds advantage on their closest chasers then moved swiftly onto the very fast, well-surfaced descent that followed, suddenly the race came down to just three riders ahead.

Knowing that Schmid was fastest, the two Jayco racers cleverly opted to keep things together and Yates under control rather than go from distance and coming into the final kilometres, Yates’ already difficult position was steadily growing harder.

The British all-rounder did his best to surprise the two with an early jump, but it was virtually impossible given Schmid’s faster turn of speed and in the last 50 metres, Yates threw in the towel, allowing the Swiss racer to slow and celebrate in style as he reached the line.

“It was a good fight there in the final,” Yates – double defending champion in the fast upcoming Tour of Oman, which starts Saturday – confirmed to Oman TV. “But with two guys from Jayco, it was always going to be tricky, and I’m happy to start the week like this.”

“I went quite fast on the climb, maybe a bit too early, but it’s not so long, and I needed to make a difference somewhere. The two guys managed to hang on, but in the sprint I was never going to be the fastest there. But these are good signs for next week.”