Discover the Stage 2 highlights
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More information:
https://www.thealulatour.com/en/
https://www.facebook.com/thealulatour/
https://twitter.com/thealulatour
https://www.instagram.com/thesalulatour/
#TheAlUlaTour
More exclusive contents on Tour de France Club : https://www.letour.fr/fr/club
© Amaury Sport Organisation - www.aso.fr
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SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:08 Here comes Milano, but it's Kasper van Ouden.
00:12 Kasper van Ouden.
00:13 Here comes Groenewegen on the inside.
00:16 Groenewegen, did he take it on the line?
00:19 Kasper van Ouden is the stage winner.
00:22 It was a fantastic sprint for van Ouden.
00:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:28 Kasper van Ouden upset some of the more fancied sprinters
00:31 to win the first stage of the Alula Tour yesterday.
00:34 And the young Dutchman is relishing
00:36 the prospect of a first day in the leader's green jersey.
00:39 [SPEAKING DUTCH]
00:46 For me, it doesn't add more pressure.
00:47 I think my goal succeeded, so we can just have fun and ride
00:51 the best way we can.
00:53 And we just enjoy it.
00:54 And hopefully, we can do something again today.
00:57 But we will see.
00:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:02 Today's punchy finish is likely to prove too tough
01:05 for the pure sprinters.
01:07 But it could be perfect for a man like Soren Verenscholdt,
01:10 who won last year on the uphill drag to Abu Raqqa.
01:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:21 Yeah, it's a little bit--
01:22 it's not as steep.
01:23 But I think it will suit me well.
01:26 So just have to time the lead out.
01:28 So it goes a little bit down.
01:30 So just have to keep the momentum into the climb
01:33 so the other guys don't come from behind.
01:37 So, but yeah, we will see.
01:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:42 Brian Karkar also likes a tough sprint.
01:44 And he's wearing one of the luckiest numbers in cycling.
01:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:50 You're wearing number 51.
01:54 You have a smile on your face.
01:55 Because you know about number 51.
01:58 Yeah, yeah.
02:00 I have 51 win in professional.
02:05 And I try to--
02:07 today to take the 52.
02:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:13 Today's final could also be important in the context
02:16 of overall victory.
02:17 And the British champion Fred Wright
02:19 has promised to liven things up.
02:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:24 My plan is to pick up as many bonus seconds
02:26 as I can on the way to the final climb.
02:29 And yeah, try and survive.
02:31 Not lose too much time to the climbers.
02:33 And then yeah, try and win the overall.
02:36 Go for the GC.
02:37 Why not?
02:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:41 Stage two is the longest of this year's edition,
02:45 with a shade under 200 kilometers
02:47 to cover between Winter Park and the Sharon Nature Reserve.
02:51 There was also a bit more wind forecast today.
02:53 So there'll be a greater threat of echelons.
02:56 The final drag to the finish line
02:58 will really sting the legs, with average gradients of around 6%.
03:02 So the punchier sprinters could end up
03:04 vying for victory with some of the GC contenders.
03:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:09 There was a bit of crosswind action
03:15 before the live pictures began, with the peloton splitting
03:18 into four groups at one point.
03:20 But everything had calmed down, with around 65 kilometers to go.
03:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:27 Once again, there were five riders in the breakaway,
03:31 with several of the same teams as yesterday on the move.
03:35 Oskar Tell-Oskardi were this time represented in orange
03:38 by Ennekoitse Asparan, who discovered this race last year.
03:41 Andreas Miltiades, a 13-time champion of Cyprus,
03:48 was up there for the Terengganu cycling team,
03:50 along with two riders from Rujai Insurance.
03:53 Tegspiar Batshaikhan, the winner of last year's Tour of Thailand,
03:57 and Polychronos Tortsakis, the Greek time trial specialist
04:01 who made that late attack yesterday.
04:03 The fifth member of the group was Atsushi Oka
04:06 from JCL Team Yukio, who was quickest
04:09 at the first intermediate active sprint.
04:16 Today's bonus sprint had come early,
04:18 with Zabia Asparan, Ennekoitse's brother,
04:21 taking the three seconds ahead of Anders-Halland Johannesson
04:24 and Artur Saint-Pensart.
04:25 With 55 kilometers to go, the breakaway
04:30 had a lead of around 3 and 1/2 minutes,
04:32 with the peloton being driven by Jacob Ulula, Soudal Quick-Step,
04:36 and DSM Fermanic Post-Denel on behalf of their race
04:39 leader, Casper van Ouden.
04:45 The bunch ploughing into a cross headwind,
04:47 and they were clearly wary of being caught out again.
04:49 A sudden injection of pace quickly brought the gap down
04:55 to under two minutes.
04:56 Movistar trying to force some splits on behalf of their leader,
05:04 Davide Formolo, last year's runner-up who
05:06 was selected ahead of the defending champion, Ruben Guerrero.
05:10 No luck, but a few nerves in the peloton
05:12 caused a crash with one of the Saudi national riders
05:15 going to ground hard.
05:18 Oh, and a crash.
05:20 One of the Saudi riders has just hit the deck
05:22 with a very big fall.
05:25 This looks like Amad Al-Omrani.
05:29 The breakaway had meanwhile reached the second intermediate
05:32 active sprint, and Oka took another three points
05:35 ahead of Bat Saikhan.
05:36 Their fun at the front was soon over, though.
05:41 They were swallowed up by the peloton
05:43 with 34 and 1/2 kilometers remaining.
05:45 Well, here's something you don't see every day,
05:51 a mini sandstorm, which luckily didn't hit the peloton.
05:54 We saw Simon Yates caught out by a late puncher yesterday.
06:02 Today, it was Formolo's turn.
06:06 Problem here, right-hand side of the road for Davide Formolo.
06:10 This is not good news, because this race right now is full on.
06:13 Formolo has a problem.
06:15 The Italian chasing hard with the help of his teammates,
06:22 Yoan Jacobs and Matthias Norsgaard.
06:24 Meanwhile, the peloton were getting a front row seat
06:30 of one of the most spectacular sites in this part of the world,
06:33 or indeed anywhere in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
06:36 the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra,
06:39 which will host the start of Friday's fourth stage.
06:42 Perhaps the bunch slowed down to get a better look.
06:47 Either way, Formolo was safely back in with just over 16K to go.
06:50 Everyone starting to jostle for position on the run-in,
06:58 with the speed really increasing
07:00 as they suddenly moved into a tailwind section.
07:03 The peloton starting to thin out as the road began to rise,
07:06 with Cofidis working on the front for Kocka.
07:09 It was no real surprise to see Kronerwegen dropped.
07:12 He had, at any rate, been struggling with illness.
07:15 And then the GC favourites began to make their moves.
07:21 Rafael Maiker was the first man to light it up for UAE Team Emirates.
07:25 His teammate Finn Fischer-Black then had a go.
07:30 Simon Yates also right up there.
07:32 But the most decisive moment was ahead.
07:38 But the most decisive-looking attack came from Pierre Latour.
07:41 Soren van 't Scold is there with his Uno-X team.
07:51 They're trying to line this one up,
07:52 but Latour has still got a little bit of an advantage for Total Energie.
07:57 Have Uno-X got enough? 500 metres to go.
08:03 It's still Pierre Latour of Total Energie.
08:06 He is still there. He is still holding on.
08:09 They're desperately trying to close the gap now.
08:11 Uno-X are trying to fire with van 't Scold.
08:15 Is Pierre Latour going to get it on the line?
08:17 It's a furious sprint.
08:19 Latour is caught.
08:20 Here goes Soren van 't Scold.
08:22 Soren van 't Scold all the way to the line.
08:25 He was the favourite.
08:26 Van 't Scold takes it for Uno-X Mobility.
08:33 Soren van 't Scold becomes just the third rider to win multiple stages of the Alula Tour,
08:38 along with Rune Wegen and Phil Bauhaus.
08:40 The 23-year-old Norwegian securing his seventh career victory
08:44 and showing he is a force to be reckoned with in these punchy finishes.
08:48 As a bonus, the Uno-X Mobility man takes over from Van Uden as the race leader.
09:00 It was a little bit easier than the one we had last year that was really steep.
09:05 So this one was even better for me.
09:09 We wanted to stay in the front, but not too far up in the peloton in the last 4K.
09:17 So we did perfect and then we just tried to gather on the top
09:20 and just tried to keep the momentum in the last 500 metres
09:25 because it goes a little bit uphill, so you don't want to lose the power.
09:30 We just timed it perfect.
09:32 Veren 't Scold winning ahead of Henok Mouloubrahan,
09:35 the two-time African Road Race champion.
09:37 Nils Eikhoff and Van Uden both made the top five for DSM Fermanik PostNL,
09:42 either side of Kockaer.
09:43 Veren 't Scold and Van Uden are level on time,
09:49 but the Norwegian leads the race by virtue of better stage rankings.
09:53 He is also now on top in the red jersey standings,
10:00 leading by just a point from Van Uden.
10:02 Mouloubrahan and Kroonewegen have 12 apiece.
10:04 Ocker replaces Unai Zubeldia as leader of the most active rider competition.
10:11 They both have six points, but the Japanese rider is better placed overall.
10:15 And like Van Uden yesterday, Veren 't Scold has three jerseys.
10:20 He is also our best young rider.
10:21 Tomorrow should be a more classic sprint stage
10:27 between Alula International Airport and the Alula Camel Cup track,
10:30 so do join us again on Thursday and thanks for watching.
10:34 (MUSIC)
10:40 (MUSIC ENDS)
10:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]