Adam Yates retains title at Tour of Oman

After an entertaining battle with French duo David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), UAE Team Emirates-XRG‘s Adam Yates finished second on the fifth and final stage of the Tour of Oman atop Jabal Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain). With the result, Yates moved into the leader’s jersey and successfully retained his Tour of Oman title.

Winning the general classification was always at the top of Yates’ early season wishlist, having taken the crown on his first appearance at the race last season. With a number of strong accelerations in the finale on Wednesday, Yates was able to distance race leader Gaudu and come across the line only a handful of seconds down on stage winner Paret-Peintre.

The efforts were enough to move Yates into the red jersey, which he wins ahead of Paret-Peintre (6″ down in second place) and Gaudu (39″ in third).

Yates: “I think we knew already from the start of the week that this would be the key stage. There was a hard climb on stage 3, but it was a little bit shorter and more explosive, so it didn’t suit my characteristics quite as well as today. We waited for today, and it turned out to be a good day.

“I think I said at the beginning of the week that I’m not actually in top shape right now. I need to be good for a long time later in the year, so I’m happy to be at this level and fighting for the win. It’s a good sign for the future and I’m just happy to win!”

Heading into the final stage some six seconds behind Gaudu, Yates and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad were aware that they would have to take the race to Groupama-FDJ on the final summit finish. It was the young Luca Giaimi who first seized his opportunity on stage 5, making his way into the day’s breakaway, which went clear after 10km of racing and ensured that the Emirati squad would have a presence up the road for the majority of the day.

Ahead of the final climb, Giaimi dropped back to the peloton to offer his support to his teammates, with the pace ramping up in anticipation of Green Mountain. Averaging 10% for 5.4km, the final mountain test of this year’s Tour of Oman was always likely to decide the winner of the red jersey, and so it proved.

From the bottom of the climb, UAE Team Emirates-XRG battled – successfully – with the likes of Visma-Lease a Bike and Groupama-FDJ to gain position at the head of the peloton, before going to work at setting a hard pace on behalf of Yates. Despite a crash earlier in the stage, Rafał Majka produced an admirable display to reduce the size of the bunch, before Jay Vine operated as the last in line and dropped everybody but Yates, Paret-Peintre and Gaudu from his wheel inside 2km to go.

With Vine’s strong turn done, Yates picked his moment to accelerate and immediately it was race leader Gaudu who could not sustain the pace. Over the next kilometre, there would be a ding-dong contest between Yates and Paret-Peintre, with the Frenchman making his own dig off the front. To his credit, Yates stuck to task and was able to close the gap as they went under the flamme rouge.

As Gaudu battled hard to remain in contention, Yates made one final acceleration with a little over 700m to ride. The move was enough to rid Gaudu of the red jersey and whilst Paret-Peintre won the eventual sprint to the line, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG man came over the line just two seconds behind, taking the overall victory of the Tour of Oman for the second time in as many years.

Less than a month into the 2025 campaign, Yates’ win is already UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s sixth of the season.

Stage 5 results

1. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 3:13:15

2. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +2″

3. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +45″

General Classification (final) after stage 5 

1. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 21:13:18

2. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) +6″

3. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +39″