George Bennett stayed strong during the long final climb up Green Mountain in the fourth stage of the Tour of Oman today. The Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider from New Zealand climbed to the seventh place behind winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Pro Team).

Sports director Jan Boven already said yesterday that it was Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s plan to bring Bennett to the foot of Green Mountain in the best position as possible. The others had to save energy during the rest of the stage. The Team LottoNL-Jumbo riders followed the plan to perfection.

“It was a hard stage final, but the rest of the day was quiet,” Boven said. “The team lead out George very well. During the stage, the pace in the peloton was high because the breakaway group was quite big. We came through that part of the race without spending too much energy. Maarten Wynants stayed with George for a while, but George had to go his own way afterwards.”

The Kiwi delivered a great performance. “It was too steep to ride in small groups,” Boven added. “George was with Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant - Alpecin) for a while, but had to let him go in the end. I’m very satisfied with his performance. When you take a look at the riders who are competing here and keep in mind that he was struggling with a jetlag during the first days, he showed that he is in a very good condition.”

Bennett said that he is glad with the way his sports director Boven and coach Mathieu Heijboer approached him this week. “They didn’t put any pressure on me,” he added. “They really kept in mind that it’s hard to go for a top spot in the general classification after a long trip and a time difference of nine hours, and I like that. It took a while before I recovered from the jetlag, so I wasn’t even able to follow the first 50 riders in the race in the first days. Today, I felt much better and my seventh place gives me a lot of confidence. I took the next step in my development in these days and I hope that I can confirm that during Paris-Nice next month.”

On Saturday, there is another tough stage waiting for the riders in the Tour of Oman. In the stage final, they must cover the Bousher climb three times. “We’re climbing it twice from one side and once from the other side, and the pace will be high,” Boven said. “We’ll try to put George in a good position again.”