AlUla Tour 2025 Stage 2

January 29, 2025 It's the first of two opportunities in the GC to make a difference in this edition of the AlUla Tour. The lollipop route takes the riders onto a circuit 87KM into the 158KM race. They will take on the finishing climb of Bir Jaydah on three occasions. It is short but punchy, 2.8KM long at 9.4% and the final 1.6KM averaging over 12%, the Bir Jaydah should shake out the contenders for the overall. Simone Raccani of JCL Team UKYO, Muhammad Shahmir Aiman Abdul Halim and Muhammad Nur Aiman Bin Rosli of Terengganu Cycling, Jens Reynders of Wagner-Bazin WB, and Kongphob Thimachai of Roojai got away from the start. Rosli and Thimachai dropped away in the middle of the stage, leaving just three at the front with 65KM to go and a lead of 3 minutes 45 seconds. The road conditions were poor in some spots and riders were stopping with flat tires left and right on the run in to the first passage up Bir Jaydah. Raccani and Reynders went over the top together with 54.3KM to go and a gap of 3 minutes back to a peloton that had the back door open with lots of riders dropping away. A surprise announcement from the Race Directors cut out 27KM, one full lap of the circuit due to the dangerous road conditions. Raccani and Reynders still had a handy gap of 1 minute 40 seconds. They pushed on hard, knowing now that they had just 19KM to go to hold their advantage. The bunch went into full flight and the speed went way up, being forced by Jayco AlUla and Q36.5. The race was stopped and put into a rolling neutralization with 16KM to go to get over the worst part of road which was basically a gravel path. The break was given 20 seconds of their lead when the regulators dropped the flag again with only 5KM to go. Raccani and Reynders were caught 3KM from the line as the road tipped upward. UAE-XRG, TotalEnergies, and Bahrain-Victorious all took turns driving the pace on the climb. 20 riders were still in contention with 1KM to go until Rainer Kepplinger of Bahrain-Victorious strung it out. Tom Pidcock took advantage of a slight lull with a big attack with 500M to go and blew the rest away. Kepplinger was best of the rest at 4 seconds behind with former Mountain Biker Alan Hatherly of Jayco AlUla taking third, 7 seconds back.