AlUla Tour 2025 Stage 4

January 31, 2025 The stage is almost entirely flat, passing through Hegra and Qaraqir twice on a circuit before diverting to take on the steep climb of Harrat Uwayrid which is 3KM long, averaging 12% but the finish line is not at the top. The route continues for nearly 9KM on a false flat downhill which should see a reduced group of puncheurs and climbers going for the win. Bright sunshine saw the riders off from the reflective Maraya in the background. Seven riders made the break including Alessandro Romele and Alexandre Vinokurov of XDS-Astana, Henri-François Renard-Haquin and Jens Reynders of Wagner-Bazin WB, Yuma Koishi of JCL Team UKYO, Muhammad Shahmir Aiman Abdul Halim of Terengganu Cycling, and Andreas Miltiadis and Kongphob Thimachai of Roojai Insurance. Their lead was nearly 2 minutes 70KM to race as Jayco AlUla and Q36.5 did the pace making. Three riders were dropped leaving five in the break but they rode well and maintained a 1 minute gap with 20KM to go. With 13KM to go, the road meandered away from the flat desert plain into a narrowing valley with one way out, up the climb to Harrat Uwayrid. The pace ramped up and the break was caught with 11KM to go. Race leader Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 went to the front with 10KM to go on gradients of over 15%. It got even steeper through corners over 20% and only Eddie Dunbar and Alan Hatherly of Jayco AlUla, and Rainer Kepplinger of Bahrain-Victorious could follow. Dunbar was fighting to hold the wheel 1KM from the top as Pidcock and the others winched their way up. Pidcock accelerated 9.2KM from the finish and rode the others off his wheel. He hit the plateau with 8.4KM to go and a gap of 26 seconds back to Dunbar, Hatherly, Kepplinger and Johannes Kulset of Uno-X Mobility who managed to tag on over the top. The four chasers had the gap down to 15 seconds with 1KM to go as Dunbar buried himself but they came up short. Pidcock crossed the line to take his second win of the week, sealing the GC win for Q36.5. Behind, Kepplinger jumped at 200M but Hatherly had the speed and took second place on the line with Kepplinger in third then Kulset and Dunbar in fourth and fifth. Tom Pidcock now leads the GC by 29 seconds on Kepplinger and 32 seconds on Hatherly.