Valls wins Tour of Oman

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Spanish climbing specialist Rafael Valls of Lampre-Merida won the sixth edition of the Tour of Oman while Austria's Matthias Brandle of IAM Cycling clinched the sixth and final stage on Sunday.

Valls who seized control of the standings by winning the highlight stage of the race - the climb to Jebel Akhdar on Friday - managed to keep his rivals at bay to clinch the most prestigious win of his career.

He finished with a clear nine-second advantage over American Tejay van Garderen (BMC) the runner-up while another Spaniard the experienced Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was third with a 19-second gap with Valls.

During Sunday's 133.5km stage from Seeb to Muttrah Corniche Brandle went clear of three other breakaway riders in the final stretch to finish four seconds ahead of Belgian Iljo Keisse (Etixx-QuickStep).

Austria's Jef van Meiraghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) came third at 13 seconds behind the winner followed by American Danny Pate (Team Sky) who took the fourth place.

'It was a little bit like the Tour of Britain. We were strong riders today we worked together and we had to do a bit of a team time-trial and keep good speed' Brandle said.

'We had to work together on the climbs to make sure we didn't push too hard. In the end I was lucky to have emerged as the strongest.'

The leading group of four stayed together until the final circuit before Pate struck out on a small unclassified climb on the finishing circuit. But Brandle showed he had enough gas in the tank to catch up with him. It then became a drag race to the finish with Keisse too tracking them down quickly and nearly catching up.

A day after extreme heat and a sandstorm forced the cancellation of stage five the temperature fell drastically by almost 20°C on Sunday.

For the first time in the 2015 edition grey skies greeted the peloton as 138 riders lined up for the start at the Oman Air headquarters in Seeb.

The points classification category was won by Italy's Andrea Guardini (Astana Pro Team) while South Africa's Louis Meintjes (MTN) finished as the best young rider.

Dutchman Jef van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) won the most aggressive rider's jersey.

Results: General classification [top five]: 1 Rafael Valls (Lampre-Merida) 2 Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) 3 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 4 Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) 5 Jacques Janse van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka).

Team classification [top five]: 1 BMC Racing 2 Tinkoff-Saxo 3 MTN-Qhubeka 4 Astana Pro Team 5 Lampre-Merida.

Stage six [top five]: 1 Matthias Brandle (IAM Cycling) 2 Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step) 3 Jef van Meirhaeghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) 4 Danny Pate (Team Sky) 5 Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo).