All eyes were on Matteo Jorgenson's debut pro victory on stage 3 of the Tour of Oman as he finished atop Jabal Hut, but 30 minutes after the American's triumphant finish, a catastrophe occurred on the finish straight.

As the group led by Ben Zwiehoff of Bora-Hansgrohe and Louis Meintjes of Intermarché Circus Wanty was heading for the finish, a finish line barrier popped up on the road, blocking the path of 10 riders vying for 16th place.

The culprit was a helicopter from an Omani television station that flew too low to capture footage of the finish, inadvertently misaligning the barrier and hampering the group of riders.

As the finish line cameras showed Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Kazakstan), Niklas Eg (Unoex), and Jan Hilt (Soudal Quickstep) crossing the line, the barrier was seen moving across the road in the background and several race officials rushed to pull the barrier out. [Unlike stage 4 of the 2020 Giro d'Italia, where Luca Wackermann was hospitalized after a similar accident, fortunately none of the riders involved in this incident were injured. This is in contrast to the fourth stage of the 2020 Giro d'Italia, where Luca Wackermann was hospitalized. However, the helicopter pilot is now out of the race and has been replaced by a new pilot for the remaining two stages.

Click below to see the incident caught on camera at the finish

Meanwhile, the race's UCI commissaires gave 20 seconds to the group of riders who were held back from 16th to 25th place.

The riders whose time was put back were Zwiekhoff and his teammates Emmanuel Buchmann, Meintjes, Michel Ries (Alcare Samsic), Jaakko Hanninen (AG2R Citroen), Sylvain Monique (Lot Dostony), Remy Rochas (Cofidis), Giovanni Carboni (Cologne Farma), and the Bingaul pair of Floris de Tia and Renate Tugels.

This group is now classified as finishing 25 seconds behind. Teugels, Rochas, Buchmann, Meintjes, de Tier, Monique, and Hanninen are on the same time heading into stage 4, 40 seconds behind race leader Jorgenson.

Several commented on the incident on Twitter after the stage.

"Wild finale here in Oman," wrote Zwiehoff (open in new tab), who took the hold-up humorously. The barrier was "a little too high for a bunny hop.

Reese, on the other hand, viewed the issue from the perspective of rider safety, writing, "Luckily, I was able to avoid the barriers flying into the road at the finish of today's stage! But something like that should never happen! How could something like that happen in a group sprint!"

The Tour of Oman continues on Tuesday with a 205-km stage through the Itti Hills and concludes on Wednesday with the traditional Green Mountain summit finish.