The prestigious stage race Tour of Oman concluded with a complete triumph for XDS Astana Team. On the final stage featuring the iconic climb of Green Mountain, Christian Scaroni claimed a brilliant victory, while his teammate Cristián Rodríguez secured second place. These results delivered a one-two overall success for XDS Astana Team in the General Classification: Scaroni won the Tour of Oman, and Rodríguez finished as runner-up.
In addition, Christian Scaroni claimed the green jersey in the points classification, while XDS Astana Team won the team classification.
“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. Diego Ulissi stayed with me all day, protecting me from the wind and helping with positioning. Cristián Rodríguez gave me huge support at the only difficult moment on the climb, about one and a half kilometers from the finish. 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. I want to thank the whole team for the phenomenal support throughout the week and especially today. And once again, thanks to Diego Ulissi as his help in the wind was invaluable”, – said Christian Scaroni.
“To be honest, I’m very happy with what we achieved. We came here aiming to fight for the overall victory, and today we won. I’m also pleased to have felt strong again, to regain my form and confidence – I really needed that. Being at the front on the decisive stage of such a high-level race is important for me. It was great to help Christian Scaroni take the win here, and I’m very happy to have delivered a strong result myself. What happened today is something incredible – it doesn’t happen every day”, – said Cristián Rodríguez.
“The whole team performed at a very high level today. On the one hand, everything went very well for us in this race; on the other, we certainly missed Alberto Bettiol on the flat stages – he was in very good shape but unfortunately fell ill. Nevertheless, the rest of the guys gave 100%. We executed the final climb exactly as planned, managing our effort well throughout. We have experience winning on this climb: this is already our fourth success at the Tour of Oman. We knew Adam Yates would be the main favorite and that he would attack, so Cristián Rodríguez closely followed his moves and supported our leader. Christian Scaroni, in turn, distributed his effort perfectly and managed to stay at the front going into the final kilometer. After that, it was his territory – he delivered the decisive and winning acceleration. It is especially pleasing that after such an intense week we also won the team classification – today’s success belongs to the entire team”, – added Dmitriy Fofonov, Sports Director of XDS Astana Team.
Almost simultaneously with the finish of the Tour of Oman, the men’s road race at the Asian Road Championships concluded, where XDS Astana Team riders also achieved a one-two success: Yevgeniy Fedorov, representing Kazakhstan, won the gold medal, while Haoyu Su, racing for China, claimed silver.
Following today’s results, XDS Astana Team moved into the lead of the UCI WorldTour three-year ranking cycle (2026–2028) with 2,488 points, achieving an important milestone at the start of the current season.
Stage
- Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana Team) 03h23’19”
- Cristián Rodríguez (XDS-Astana Team) +03”
- Luke Plapp (Team Jayco Alula) +06”
GC
- Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana Team) 19h33’16”
- Cristián Rodríguez (XDS-Astana Team) +24”
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates XRG) +44”
