Edvald Boasson Hagen claimed sixth place on stage five of the Tour of Oman as Team Sky looked to make amends for a difficult day on Wednesday.

The Norwegian was forced to relinquish his leader's red jersey overnight after losing over a minute when his rivals attacked while he was taking a comfort break, but battled back valiantly with another determined display.

The 22-year-old was set up brilliantly again by his team-mates but could only look on as Tom Boonen powered over the finishing line for his first win of the tour.

Quick Step rider Boonen, who claimed two stage wins at the Tour of Qatar last week, continued his fine early-season form by edging Saxo Bank's Juan José Haedo and Topsport Vlaanderen rider Michael Van Staeyen at the line.

Boasson Hagen was narrowly pipped by Saxo Bank's Baden Cooke and Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar.

The relatively flat 148km route from Wattayat to the Sultan Qaboos Stadium in Muscat was made more challenging by strong crosswinds coming in off the Gulf of Oman and Nikita Eskov (Katusha), Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing Team) and Matthe Pronk (Vacansoliel) attempted to take advantage of that when they broke free after just 20km.

The trio's lead extended to five minutes at one point but they were eventually reeled in with 13km to go before another pulsating bunch sprint over the final stages.

Boonen's victory means he has leapt to second in the overall standings and now trails Daniele Bennati by just six seconds. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) dropped one place to third while Boasson Hagen remains over a minute off the pace in 34th.

Testing day

Ian Stannard was the second Team Sky rider home in 36th position and he admitted conditions had been far from ideal on a testing penultimate day.

He said: "It was a pretty hard because there were crosswinds all day and the peloton was all lined out.

"We stayed together and made it as easy as possible for each other but couldn't really make an impact."

The 22-year-old has been working hard all week to protect Boasson Hagen and feels there is still a slim chance his teammate could challenge for top honours when the tour culminates with an individual time trial on Friday.

"Edvald has got a good time trial on him so anything is possible tomorrow," he added.

"People can puncture or totally blow up, but it's only 18km so it's not a long way to go unfortunately."