Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) has won the third stage of the Tour of Oman.

The German sprint sensation took his second stage victory and regained the overall lead with victory after 142.5km from Bidbid (Nafa’a) – Al Wadi Al Kabir.

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) who began the stage in the leader’s jersey after winning stage two, was second on the stage and is second overall. Third place went to Radioshack-Nissan-Trek’s French sprinter, Andre Gallopin.

Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) stayed with his teammates on the tough climbs of the finishing circuits, but did not push hard to save energy for Sunday’s closing stage.

His team mate, Chris Sutton, finished fifth on the stage and moved to seventh on general classification, 22 seconds behind race leader Greipel.

Tour of Oman stage four

1) André Greipel (GER) – Lotto Belisol Team – 3:37:02
2) Peter Sagan (SVK) – Liquigas-Cannondale
3) Tony Gallopin (FRA) – RadioShack-Nissan
4) Nacer Bouhanni (FRA) – FDJ-Big Mat
5) Christopher Sutton (AUS) – Sky Procycling
6) Martin Kohler (SWI) – BMC Racing Team
7) Pier Paolo De Negri (ITA) – Farnese Vini – Selle Italia
8) Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) – Omega Pharma-Quickstep
9) Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU) – Garmin – Barracuda
10) Baden Cooke (AUS) – GreenEdge Cycling Team

General classification

1) André Greipel (GER) – Lotto Belisol Team -13:36:33
2) Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale + 6”
3) Nacer Bouhanni (FRA) FDJ-Big Mat + 18”
4) Tony Gallopin (FRA) RadioShack-Nissan
5) Baden Cooke (AUS) – GreenEdge Cycling Team + 19”
6) Tom Jelte Slagter (NED) – Rabobank Cycling Team +21”
7) Christopher Sutton (AUS) Sky Procycling + 22”
8) Jakob Fuglsang (DEN) RadioShack-Nissan + 25”
9) Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU) Garmin – Barracuda
10) Fabian Cancellara (SWI) RadioShack-Nissan + 29”