Clancy takes his turn in the break as Dunnewind crashes out in Oman

The second day of racing at the Tour of Oman bore witness to early drama for Team Novo Nordisk as stage one breakaway star Jan Dunnewind crashed out with a suspected broken collarbone as teammate Stephen Clancy sped off into the distance for his own day out front.

Stephen Clancy (IRL):

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been out front in a bike race, so I’m very happy that I was able to get up the road early and play my part. But at the same time, we were very sorry to lose Jan to an early crash, he was in a great place on the top ten on GC and we all wish him a speedy recovery. He definitely inspired us all yesterday.”

“The winds were very strong today and that definitely affected our average speed out there, but there were only two of us and we worked very well together to stay away as long as we did. For sure we’ve got the breakaway bug now and we’ll be trying again tomorrow, the stage will be quite a bit lumpier than today, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Sport Director, Gennady Mikhaylov (RUS):

“What a day of mixed fortunes for us. Yesterday we did everything right, breakaway, top ten in the sprint and Jan sixth on GC. Today, Stephen in the break, Jan crashed out and Andrea Peron just outside the top ten in the sprint. But hey, that’s cycling and you have to take the rough with the smooth.”

“Of course, the objectives change a little now, we were looking at protecting Jan’s position overall and maybe trying to get him into the white young rider’s jersey, but now we’ll focus on stage results and continuing to show ourselves at the front.”

“Jan will be ok. A broken collarbone is an almost routine injury for a cyclist, and he should be back on the bike soon and make a good recovery. As for Stephen, he did a great job out there, only two guys in the break and they rotated for as long as they could and it was great that Stephen took the initiative and went early.”