Movistar management is quietly confident that Matteo Jorgenson will be able to hold the lead through to the finish of the Tour of Oman on Wednesday.

Jorgenson, who finished fourth in Sunday's first hilly stage, took the red jersey with a brilliant attack in the summit finish at Jabal Hut on stage 3, but 14 riders remain within 35 seconds of the "danger zone" in the overall standings.

Despite this slim margin, both Jorgenson and his team feel that a GC defense is more than possible in the remaining two stages, including Wednesday's decisive climb to Jabal al-Akdal.

"We are with him 100%. The race we had planned in advance for him was a top three finish, so we came here with the idea of a really good GC and a team built for it," Oman's Movistar sports director Max Shandri said as he and other team staff proudly watched the victory podium ceremony. He told Cycling News. [Green Mountain (Jabal Al Akhdhar) is a tough course with a gradient of over 10%, so it's up to the legs, but the team is there for him.

Sciandri revealed that management and riders held a meeting after the second stage to make sure the team was all together and fired up for Monday's stage. However, no matter what the backdrop and no matter how the team came together to race, it was ultimately Jorgenson's individual effort that mattered most, and he attacked with flying colors.

"We had a team meeting on Sunday night. The first summit finish in Matteo [on stage 2] went well, but before the climb we weren't completely together as a team. And this time it went really well," Scandoli said.

"We can talk about the last climb as much as we want in meetings.

Jorgenson especially thanked the team for showing confidence in him as a racer despite the long battle to get his first professional win, and Scandri confirmed that Movistar "always believed in Matteo."

"I talked to Matteo last week and he has trained well and I knew he could go that far.

"He's a great guy, super professional and super dedicated. If you look for victory too much, you can hurt yourself. We believe in you.

"From then until last year, he did well in the Tour de France (20th overall) and I think the Tour has changed him. The Grand Tours, especially the Tour, gives you a depth as a racer that you don't get in other races. After the Tour, he has a different mentality."

Jorgenson himself said he is usually better at long climbs rather than punchy finishes like the Jabalhat, so there is room for optimism heading into Wednesday. On Monday evening, he sounded very upbeat about the possibility of keeping the red for the next two days.

"I'm really confident," he said. Wednesday's climb will be different than today's, but I think I can handle it just fine."

"Tomorrow [Tuesday] I'll get back to work for Max [Kanter, teammate] and hope he can get his first pro win.