Vincenzo Nibali is closing in on the overall title at the Tour of Oman after retaining his lead on a rolling fifth stage won by Edvald Boasson Hagen.
The peloton broke apart over the Bousher al Amerat climb, with about 14km to go, and only 34 riders contested a reduced-bunch sprint finish at the Ministry of Tourism, just outside Muscat.
Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) sealed his second win of this year's race and third of the season by comfortably beating Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) into second place and Marco Canola (UnitedHealthcare) into third.
Nibali (Astana) followed in 12th to ensure he remains 15 seconds ahead of second-placed Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and 24 seconds ahead of third-placed Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) at the top of the general classification.
The race concludes on Sunday with a 130.5km sprint stage and it appears that Nibali only has to avoid crashing to secure overall victory.
Stage five result
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data, 3:05:32
2 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, same time
3 Marco Canola (Ita) UnitedHealthcare, st
4 Simone Ponzi (Ita) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, st
5 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
Selected other
12 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, st
General classification
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 19:24:07
2 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +15sec
3 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, +24
4 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +40
5 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, +54