The historic region of AlUla will host the peloton for the 3rd time, the first time under its new name – AlUla Tour (previously the Saudi Tour). The five stage race will take place between January 30th and February 3rd covering 816km and almost 6,000m of elevation.
Historically this race has been favored by sprinters, with puncheurs having a say as well.
Our team will be ready to fight for the GC as well as look to snatch stage wins outlined by lead Sports Director Enrico Poitschke: “In general we have a great team for AlUla. Fred Wright will fight for a good result in GC while Dusan Rajovic is fast and he’ll be our ‘go-to’ rider for the sprint stages. All other riders are in good shape and motivated. With Andrea Pasqualon and Jasha Sütterlin, we will have experienced support riders. Ahmed Madan has a lot of experience in this race as he raced in the previous two years. Edoardo Zambanini and Finlay Pickering are strong young riders who create a great team. The goal is a stage win and we will fight for a podium result in GC.”
The first stage will be up for grabs for the sprinters, while the second one might favor puncheurs with a short but steep climb and finish at Sharaan Nature Reserve. The third stage looks very flat, but the terrain is very exposed and wind could easily shake up the GC. That is a novel stage that finishes at Camel Cup Track. Stage 4 connects the history (Hegra) and the future (Maraya) of Saudi, but in terms of performance, it will be the sprinters’ stage. Nothing will be decided before the last stage where we’ll see the final GC battle on the climb to Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid, with an average gradient of 17% for the length of 1km. This climb has always been on the ‘menu’ in AlUla so all the riders are very familiar with it.
Our sprinter Dusan Rajovic: “First of all, I’m very happy to have a role as a main sprinter for my team at this race, and I’m very motivated for it. Last year I did it as well, it was really a nice and interesting race. This year will be a great opportunity for me. The race, some stages, and some finishes are quite similar to last year’s race, which will definitely help. I will give my best to do some good results in Saudi.”
Our GC hopeful Fred Wright commented: “I’m really looking forward to going back to Saudi and racing the AlUla Tour. I had really good memories, as it was my first race for the team in 2020 when Phil managed to win the overall and we won a couple of stages as well. I did it also 2 years ago, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in. The shapes coming along really nicely. I was feeling better as the training camp went on, progressing nicely. I’m looking forward to testing the legs, and seeing if we can get a good GC result as well as a result on one of the stages. There are a couple that I’ve got my eye on for the win, and we also got Dusan, who is in good shape, for the flat sprint stages. We’ve got a really good balanced team for the race with the GC option and sprint options. That is really exciting. It’s always fun to go to different parts of the world. I remember a team presentation from a couple of years ago that was really cool, the Elephant Rock… there are lots of nice parts of races as well as bike racing. We have a good team for it, let’s see what the wind says, could be echelons, but as a classics rider, I’m more than excited for that aspect of the racing. I think it’s a perfect prep just to get the legs going for the rest of the season. Hopefully, we can start it well.”
