The race was decided in the final kilometer, on the steep climb to the summit finish on Green Mountain (5.7km @ 10.5%!). Gaudu came into stage 5 with a lead of 6 seconds over Yates, with Paret-Peintre sitting fourth, 18 seconds behind. From the bottom of the final climb, which was always seen as the race decider, UAE Team Emirates–XRG riders did what they do better than any other team, setting a blistering pace to drop or exhaust potential rivals on behalf of their leader, Yates. By the time Rafał Majka and Jay Vine had finished their turns, only Paret-Peintre and Gaudu remained to contest the finish with Yates.
Gaudu held on until Yates took the lead in the final kilometer and upped the pace when, according to L’Équipe, the Frenchman said he “completely exploded.” Gaudu went on to say, “When you have the leader’s jersey in the morning and you lose it on the last stage, it’s obviously disappointing. I gave it my all. I fought hard today and in the end I gave up. I completely exploded in the last kilometer. If there’d been a one-second gap overall, there would have been a lot of frustration, but there’s nothing to say about that. I blew the engine. They were stronger than me. I can only bow my head and say well done to them.”
He would fade badly and finish third in the stage, 45 seconds behind the winner. As the Frenchman was struggling, Yates and Paret-Peintre duked it out for the stage win, with the 24-year-old Frenchman proving strongest and beating Yates to the line by 2 seconds to take a rare stage victory, after winning a stage in last year’s Giro d’Italia.
Paret-Peintre told Wielerflits after the race that his initial plan had been to go for the overall race victory on the Green Mountain climb. “I tried to drop Yates about 2 kilometers from the finish, but I saw that he was very good and so I focused on the stage. It was a great fight. That I ultimately won here is no surprise to me. I felt that my form was very good. It’s great to start the season like this with my new team. There are no ‘small victories’ in cycling anymore. I am therefore very happy that I was able to win here. I wanted to win one race in 2025 and I have already succeeded.”
If the young Frenchman improves, he will be a valuable addition to Evenepoel’s Soudal–QuickStep support team, perhaps even replacing the 35-year-old Mikel Landa as the top lieutenant in the mountains.
But the race belonged to Yates, who shows no sign of weakening at age 32. “I think we knew already from the start of the week that this would be the key stage,” he was quoted as saying on his team’s website. “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.”
He went on to say—words that would please Pogačar and make his rivals wary—that he entered the race not yet at his best. “I think I said at the beginning of the week that I’m not actually in top shape right now,” Yates said. “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.”
As a consolation, Paret-Peintre won the race’s points classification competition just ahead of Visma–Lease a Bike’s rising young sprint star Olav Kooij, who won both of the race’s bunch sprint finishes. The 23-year-old Dutch rider will try to win his first Grand Tour green jersey when he rides in the Giro d’Italia in May.
2025 Tour of Oman Final GC Standings
- Adam Yates, UAE Team Emirates–XRG – 21:13:18
- Valentin Paret-Peintre, Soudal-QuickStep – + 0:06
- David Gaudu, Groupama-FDJ – 0:39
- Damien Howson, Q.36 – 1:07
- Cian Uijtdebroeks, Visma–Lease a Bike – 1:16
- Chris Harper, Jayco-AlUla – 1:22
- Wout Poels, XDS Astana – 1:23
- Embret Svestad-Bårdseng, Arkea–B&B Hotels – 1:27
- Marco Brenner, Tudor Pro – 1:37
- Simon Dalby, Uno-X Mobility – 2:05
