February 8, 2026
Stage 2 covers 191KM on hard, grippy roads from Al Rustaq Fort to Yitti Hills. The first 145KM aren't too different from the what we had yesterday with long, straight, and gently undulating desert roads. Once through the intermediate sprint in Al Kabar with 53KM to go however, the profile gets tougher. The riders climb up the Boushar Al Amarat, the side they descended yesterday, and plunge into Al Amarat and will likely be doing over 100KM/HR. The penultimate climb of the day is Al Hamriyah, a 1KM ramp at 8.5%. It tops out with with 12KM to go but the final test comes right at the finish with the last 1.8KM rising at an average of 5.4%. The day is likely too hard for a full bunch sprint but not hard enough for the GC guys to make gaps so a reduced sprint seems like the most probable outcome.
Race Summary
Temperatures were warm but not overbearing at 27C (80F). A strong group of five got away early including yesterday's breakaway star, Patryk Goszczurny of Visma-Lease a Bike, Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarché, Gil Gelders of Soudal Quickstep, Tim Marsman of Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Said Alrahbi of the Omani National Team. After 30KM of racing, the break had built a 3 minute lead with UAE-XRG doing the pace setting in the peloton.
The race continued through Wadi al Maawil and the first intermediate sprint. Goszczurny took maximum points but the sprint was uncontested and the Pole settled back into the rotation with limited disruption to the rhythm. Bottles and ice were popular items as riders were constantly moving back to the cars and forward to return to the slipstream of the peloton.
The climb to Fanja was the first real elevation gain on the stage. The ramp appeared on the horizon and the break started the climb with 102KM remaining. The road narrowed and turned into more of an access road up and over an exposed, brown, edifice of rock. All five members of the break made it over the top together with a gap of 3 minutes 30 seconds back to the bunch. In an odd move, Gelders pulled over to take a natural break on the plateau before the proper descent and allowed the others to go on. In the process, he took Alrahbi off the back who was not able to rejoin the rest of the break.
Jayco AlUla started to ride with UAE-XRG and were pulling quite hard on the flat highway roads heading away from Fanja. The gap was down to 1 minute 40 seconds with 58KM to go with the second intermediate sprint in Al Kabar just up the road. Goszczurny cleaned up the sprint points and, once again, the break got right back to pushing on the pedals with Veistroffer taking the longer turns out of the trio. It's unclear whether the peloton were given the same time gaps as we were but when the ticker popped up on the screen with 48KM to go, the gap said the break were out to 4 minutes 15 seconds which is very different than the gap just 10KM earlier.
The climb to Boushar Al Amarat started with 43KM remaining and the three leaders were given a time gap of 4 minutes 20 seconds. A few moments later, we got the first glimpse of the peloton who looked more stressed than at any other time during the day. Jayco AlUla were riding along with Cofidis. Although many teams were pushing forward, the pace was still not rapid and by the top, Goszczurny, Veistroffer, and Marsman had 2 minutes 10 seconds still in hand.
Thankfully everyone made it to the bottom of the descent safely and the chase resumed. TotalEnergies moved forward in the peloton but it was still just Jayco AlUla doing the work themselves. Eventually TotalEnergies did add a man along with Tudor Pro Cycling and Movistar but the break accelerated as well. With 20KM to go, the gap was still around 1 minute 45 seconds. They arrived at the base of Al Hamriyah with a 90 second advantage but the peloton was now lined out with teams drag racing into the bottom of the climb.
Ramps of 15% greeted the riders who had to change from churning big gears to dragging their bodies up in the smallest cog available. Paul Double of Jayco AlUla was the sole attacker from the peloton but he could not make a gap and the bunch went over the top a bit over 1 minute behind. Veistroffer attacked his companions on the dragging plateau before the descent began. Neither Goszczurny or Marsman could react and Veistroffer was clear.
All time gaps disappeared as did images of the peloton. The Frenchman kept his head down and powered to the base of the final uphill before the finish at Yitti Hills and there was no one behind him. The climb began and Veistroffer was moving all over the bike to get every ounce of energy into the pedals. When Veistroffer went through 2KM to go, we saw pictures from the bunch and they seemed more interested in trying to get away from each other than chasing the solo leader. The top of the climb came for Veistroffer as UAE-XRG got control and set their pace towards the summit. Veistroffer was pulling himself inside out as he reached the final kilometer. The peloton was largely intact as XDS-Astana took over and abruptly increased the speed. It wasn't enough however because Veistroffer crossed the line for a mightily impressive win with plenty of time to celebrate. Henok Mulubrhan of XDS-Astana won the sprint for second place on a bike throw ahead of Thibaud Gruel of Groupama-FDJ United, 17 seconds after Veistroffer crossed the line.