Tour of Oman 3

Our Stage 3 coverage starts, bizarrely, with a red scrolling banner across the bottom of the screen saying "Tour of Oman Stage 3 won by Kristoff who takes race lead from Boassen Hagen" which is a bit annoying, as this is the first screening of the race coverage, and now the suspense is gone! Gone!

We watch it anyway - we're quite accustomed to knowing the end result before we start, as we don't often get the chance to watch live coverage, so it doesn't really spoil our discussion or enjoyment of the race.

The pre-race section includes a brief interview with Gianni Meerkat - er Meersman, now also riding for AG2R, who seem to have sent a team-full of my Pets, which is nice. I have no idea what happened to his hair, though.

Race coverage starts with Kenny de Haas of  "Wanty: Group, Go, Bears!" (as we call them) leading the break, and taking all the sprint points, to the accompaniment of cries of Go, Bears! and waving of imaginary Wanty flags. (Hmm, must make a Wanty flag.)

The soundtrack is back to Tangerine Dream, with strange gaps where (presumably) Rob Hatch has to stop and rewind the cassette... actually, that's a terrible fib, I tweeted him yesterday and asked about it, never expecting a reply: but 2 hours later,  he replied:

I've said it before, but these people have no idea what a thrill it is to us "little people" when they respond to our tweets! It's such a small thing for them to, but it means so much... Andy, are you listening? *laughs*

(Meanwhile, somewhere in Lux:

TinkerJil elbows Andy sharply in the ribs and says "See!  Go on, send her a tweet!"
Andy: "Not likely, you remember what happened that last time I "engaged" with a fan, it took me years to get rid of that awful Italian Stalker Woman"
TinkerJil: "Oh, go on with you, Coug has far more sense that that sad old hag - besides, she lives a thousand miles away,"
Andy: "Only 456, actually... not that she has looked it up or anything.")

So, where were we? *coughs in embarrassment* Oh yes, so the choice of music is that of ASO, and no, Rob  Hatch is not having to turn the cassette over every so often. Good to know.  Also good to know that he does not choose to do the slushy travelogues! Back to the race...

It's very odd to suddenly see filthy black clouds in the sky. Does it rain in Oman, then? Oh - yes, it does! Most of the teams are completely lacking rain capes, but it doesn't matter too much as, after about ten minutes of rain, the roads are dry again. In fact, at one point we can see blobs of rain coming down onto the moto camera lens, but the road is still dry, which is presumably a reflection of how hot it is out there. (Although not as hot as last year, when it was over 40 degrees and riders, I seem to remember, were passing out in the heat.)

So, apparently it rains in Oman, but that does not help the greenery at all, as the scenery is just rock - rocks - more rocks. I suppose it makes a change from Quatar which was just sand - sand - sand. And the rain doesn't make the slightest difference to the race, on account of them being on beautifully tarmaced four-lane highways, with no bends to speak of.

Suddenly the soundtrack changes to smooth 90s easy listening, as poor Rob is forced to give us a brief travelogue on the beauties (?) of Oman, then just as suddenly that is all over, and we are back to the race, admiring the disc brakes of Roompot,

Don't worry, you are not going be subjected to an indepth assesment of disc brakes V calipers, nor a critique of the "spinning blades of death devices", I don't have any particular views one way or the other, other than to say that push-bikes are incredibly light, and there doesn't seem to be much point in improving the stopping of the wheel spinning, when it is still only contacting the ground with a piece of rubber about the size of my thumbnail.

So it seems to me that anyone leaning too hard on their disc brakes is just going to be sliding along the road at the same speed that everyone else is going to be slowing down at, but with slightly less control.

We shall see.

Back to the race - and as always, the sight of a handful of spectators in long white dresses (men, of course - women aren't allowed out in daylight) makes me wonder what they, voluminously and decorously covered,  must think at seeing a bunch of blokes wearing basically nothing more than swimsuits, go whizzing past in broad daylight.

Suddenly it's a big sprint finish through a building site (?) and guess who wins? Yes, it's Kristoff, who would have thought it. He takes the race lead as well. Yay for the Dark Lords (waves limp flag unenthusiastically).

However, there is one final surprise in store - I didn't realise that Kristoff was Norwegian! I know, I know, how long have I been following pro cycing? But he rides for the Dark Lords, and his name is about as Russian-sounding as it can get, so you can't really blame me!