Cannondale's Peter Sagan has won the fourth stage of the Tour Of Oman.
Sagan took the win near the end of the longest stage of the race at 173 kilometres from Wadi Al Abiyad to Ministry of Housing.
On a circuit of four climbs, 142 riders signed on and set off with Agnoli, and Westra of Astana and Fischer of FDJ getting away after nine kilometres.
Their break lasted less than six kilometres and Huffman (AST), Popovych (TFR), Van Avermaet (BMC) and Wallays (TSV) took off.
They had a lead of 4.30 when Jelle Wallays took the first bonus sprint of the day, which increased to over eight minutes by the fifty kilometre mark.
With an average speed after two hours of racing of 45.6 km/h, there was always the likelihood of a crash and it came after a hundred kilometres and saw Topsport's Pieter Van Speybrouck forced to abandon.
Pieter Van Speybrouck's team mate Jelle Wallays took the first climb after 116 kilometres and as the quartet started the second climb. their lead was down to three minutes.
Wallays added more points to his day's tally by taking the second sprint as the race leader Andrei Greipel and second place Leigh Howard were dropped by the peloton further down the road.
The gap had dropped dramatically by the time the riders got onto the third climb and Greg Van Avermaet of BMC went over the top, some eighteen seconds ahead of Nieve of Team Sky and 32 seconds ahead of the pack.
Chris Froome attacked and he was first over the fourth and final climb at Bousher Alamrat. Froome had got away with Uran but they were brought back into the fold by Peter Sagan of Cannondale and Vincenzo Nibali of Astana.
Froome could not hold on and Sagan stormed off with Nibali and Uran following and had twenty seconds going into the final three kilometres.
That was enough for Peter Sagan to win the race ahead of Uran, Nibali, Impey and Gallopin and take the leaders jersey with a ten second margin over Rigoberto Uran of Omega Pharma Quick Step and fourteen seconds over Vincenzo Nibali.