XDS-Astana’s resurgence rolls on as Scaroni wins the Tour of Oman in early-season stunner to drop Adam Yates and super team UAE on brutal steeps up Green Mountain.
Christian Scaroni celebrates victory at the Tour of Oman. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Updated February 11, 2026 09:57AM
Christian Scaroni delivered a big hit on Wednesday on the race-breaking climb up Green Mountain to double up with the stage win and snatch the overall title at the Tour of Oman to give XDS-Astana early-season confirmation that its resurgence is real.
Last year, the Kazakh-backed team seemed doomed to lose its WorldTour status only to engineer the biggest turnaround in the UCI points chase to save its spot in the top league for three more years.
Much of that revival flowed through Scaroni, the team’s leading points scorer in 2025, who closed the season ranked 18th in the UCI world standings.
Scaroni proved that it was no fluke Wednesday at the Tour of Oman with a big double knockdown to win for the third time in 2026.
“The plan was very simple: reach the final climb without any problems and then see how the legs would feel and whether there would be enough left for the finale,” Scaroni said.
“After Yates attacked, I found myself behind and couldn’t respond immediately, and Cristián helped me get back to the group of leaders.
“In the final kilometer, I tried to pace myself as well as possible, waited for Adam Yates to start his sprint, followed him, and then launched my own sprint.”
Wednesday’s “queen stage” at the Jabal Al Akhdhar (aka Green Mountain) — featuring a savage 12.1 percent final kilometer with a total of 1,369 vertical meters — is the toughest climb of the 2026 season so far.
Overnight leader Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) wasn’t expected to hang on, and all eyes turned to two-time defending champion Adam Yates of UAE Emirates-XRG.
Yates won on the mountain in 2024 en route to the overall, and last year finished second on the brutal climb to defend the GC.
Things were different this year, and some early race setback proved costly in Wednesday’s final throwdown.
“We lost a lot of guys through sickness and injuries, so we did not have many options,” Yates said.
“I had nothing to lose today, I was more interested in taking the GC than going for the stage, so I was hoping if I kept pushing, pushing, pushing, I would crack everybody. But today there were a few guys stronger than me and sometimes that is how it is.”
UAE was favored to finish off the treble, but it was Scaroni who had the diamonds in his legs.
A select group of 10 hit the red kite, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) lighting up flares.
Yates looked poised to pounce, but he stalled as Scaroni and XDS-Astana teammate Cristián Rodríguez came over the top to go one-two on the scorching-hot stage.
The pair finished like that on the podium, with Yates saving honor with third. Schmid slipped to fourth.