Tour of Oman Stage 3: Al Mussanah Sports City, 158.5kms

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About 100 Trek water bottles await stage three - will they all be used..?

trekbottlesoman

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A happy Eddy Merckx chats with Fabian Cancellara before the start...

trekoman

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A sad Eddy Merckx respects a minute's silence with Tom Boonen after the death of Claude Criquelion yesterday...

merckxoman

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Alessandro Tonnelli leads the day's hopeful escape out into the desert...

bardianioman

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Warren Barguil is on bottle duty today - he missed the big split on yesterday's stage...

bottlesalpecin

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Julian Arredondo is also on bottle duty today, but he made it into the leading group yesterday...

trekbottlesoman

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Jeff Van Meirhaeghe is in the escape for the second consecutive day...

topsportoman

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"How did you learn to sprint so well?", asks Greg Van Avermaet of Cancellara...

trekoman

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Trek Factory Racing gathers around Cancellara, but Arredondo is hiding too - he might win tomorrow..!

trekoman

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Greg Rast is doing the hard miles now, it's hot work on a day like this..!

trekrastoman

IAM decides to help Trek chase the escape, the gap is almost ten minutes...

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The peloton suffers under a hot, hot sun and temperatures of around 40-degrees C..!

sceneryoman

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Vincenzo Nibali paces Guardini as the wind picks up - Nibali missed the big move yesterday...

astanaoman

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Van Hecke is keeping the escape away, but they'll be caught with 20-kilometres to go...

topsportoman

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Guido Trentin is in agony after a pile-up involving four Giant-Alpecin riders...

crashoman

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Warren Barguil and Tom Stamsnijder have been caught out as well - but Trentin abandons...

alpecincrashoman

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It's a tight, tense, sprint at the finish with Kristoff, Guardini, Van Poppel, Pelucchi and Bouhanni in contention...

sprintoman

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Alexander Kristoff wins stage three of the 2015 Tour of Oman

katushaoman