Muscat Classic

SPRING IN THE AIR AT THE MUSCAT CLASSIC
The one-day race that began as warm-up act for the Tour of Oman in 2023 is gradually earning a place as an early-season challenge in its own right. The 170.3-kilometre course definitely lives up to its "Classic" epithet and lends itself to a hectic race, even though the first half is not particularly hard. In the words of the mastermind behind the course, Franck Perque, "The road starts to bend towards the sky at Bousher Al Amerat, which comes around the halfway point. This is not where the race will be decided, but it begins to string out the peloton and ramp up the tension". The battle will start in earnest 60 kilometres from the line, with each of the five climbs whittling down the peloton a bit further. "In the first two editions, there were only about thirty riders in contention by the time the peloton hit the Al Jissah climb, which ends 5 kilometres from the finish and is one of those places where fortune favours the bold.