January 29, 2026
The GC guys have been battered by the wind and subjected to the will of bigger, more powerful riders but they will finally get a chance to show their ability today on Stage 3 with the first hilltop finish. Setting out from Winter Park, the riders head predominantly South to Abu Zara'Ib and the first feed zone before angling Westward towards Fadhla. Once out of Fadhla, the road starts to rise very gradually and won't relent for the next 30KM. The riders will be at 1,000M in elevation at the top but there are no mountains points, but rather an Active Sprint point. There is a slight downhill and another rise back up 1,000M at 32KM from the finish for another Active Sprint. The next 27KM are all downhill until the base of Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah with a Bonus Sprint on the way. The final climb is 5KM long at 5.8% but the last 1KM is around 10%. The best climbers will emerge and we should see who is in the hunt to win the race overall.
Race Summary
Three riders broke away at the start on a warm, windy day including Muhammad Nur Aiman Bin Rosli and Zhe Yie Kee of Terengganu Cycling and Nader Hazazi of the Saudi National Team. With 68KM to go, they had 2 minutes 40 seconds on the peloton who were being led by Julius Johansen of UAE-XRG with all of the Tudor Pro Cycling team lined up behind. Hazazi backed out of the break with 58KM to go as the road slowly dragged upward, always climbing at 0.5-1%. Yie Kee led over the first Active Sprint at 46KM from the finish with the hope of staying out front for another 14KM to sweep up the second set of points. Their lead was down to 90 seconds but the peloton were just tapping along and hadn't shown an interest in increasing the pace.
Yie Kee took the second set of points at 32KM to go which put him in the lead in the Active Sprint competition and he'll wear the jersey going into Stage 4. The two Terengganu riders accomplished their mission and their pace went down but so did the speed in the peloton. With 26KM to go, the break was finally hauled back and positioning started for the GC favorites coming into the Bonus Sprint and final climb. Teams were taking every inch of available space across the road but surprisingly, only Bahrain Victorious were interested in the Bonus Sprint. Daniel Skerl took 3 seconds with his teammate Phil Bauhaus in second and Matteo Malucelli of XDS-Astana in third for one second.
Right after the Bonus Sprint came a steep highway descent and halfway down, a few riders crashed at very high speeds. Davide Stella of UAE-XRG had almost no kit left on him and was covered head to tow in road rash. Laurenz Rex of Soudal Quickstep and Fabien Grellier of TotalEnergies also came down and only Rex would get back on his bike.
The race continued however and teams reorganized and started the charge into the base of Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah. Bahrain Victorious, UAE-XRG, and Pinarello Q36.5 were mobbing the front but the best organized was Modern Adventure who were showing great unity in their first race together. When the gradients reached 5% with 4KM to go, Jayco AlUla took over and strung out the peloton. When the last lead out man pulled off for Jayco AlUla at 3KM to go, Paul Double attacked. The gradient was still just 6% making it easy enough to sit on the wheel and Double sat down. When he did, Jan Christen of UAE-XRG countered and only Gianmarco Garofoli of Soudal Quickstep was able to make it onto the wheel. Garofoli refused to take a pull and with 1,200M to go, Christen put in another attack which shook off the Italian. Garofoli blew and faded back to the rest of the favorites which numbered around 20 riders.
Inside 800M to go, Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious attacked with Yannis Voisard of Tudor Pro Cycling, Sergio Higuita of XDS-Astana, and Igor Arrieta of UAE-XRG on his wheel. Eulálio caught Christen and attacked over the top. He couldn't shake the others though and the group of five entered the barriers together at 300M to go. They briefly looked at each other until Higuita made his bid for glory. The Colombian was tracked by Voisard and Eulálio but he didn't have enough in the tank to hold it to the line. Voisard played the finish just right, sitting in and then sprinting passed Higuita for the win. Higuita faded in the last 25M and was passed by Eulálio for second place. The two UAE-XRG riders drifted backwards and were caught by the chase group who finished with a 6 second gap on the first three riders.
Voisard now leads Eulálio by 4 seconds and Higuita by 6 seconds in the overall. There are 12 riders within 30 seconds which is still manageable to overcome with the difficult stage to Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid to come.