Encouraging start to the season Fabio Jakobsen, double crash top favorite, and Jonathan Milan wins: spectacular echelon battle in the opening stage of the AlUla Tour

The AlUla Tour began on Tuesday at the same place where Tom Pidcock sealed overall victory twelve months ago: the Camel Cup Track in the historic Saudi region. It’s a venue where the wind often has free rein — and with wide, exposed roads, nervous racing was expected sooner or later.

In the opening phase, though, there was little sign of that. One Malaysian, one Saudi rider and two riders from Oman were allowed up the road: Muhammad Nur Aiman Rosli, Ali Al-Sheikh, Said Al Rahbi and Mohamed Al-Wahaibi.

Halfway through the stage, the tension finally rose as multiple teams tried to move to the front at the same time. That also led to several crashes. Frits Biesterbos (Picnic PostNL) ended up sliding onto the gravel beside the road after contact with Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal Quick-Step), and shortly afterwards, top favourite Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) went down with Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies).

Not long after Christen’s crash, the race truly exploded. Lidl–Trek, Cofidis, Soudal Quick-Step and Picnic PostNL helped force the split, and a front group of around twenty riders quickly opened a gap of just over half a minute. A number of fast men made the front selection: Jonathan Milan, Matteo Moschetti, Phil Bauhaus, Milan Fretin, Fernando Gaviria — and, notably, Fabio Jakobsen, who looked sharp and comfortable in the crosswinds for an encouraging early-season sign.

From behind, UAE (with Christen — plus 18-year-old Dutch debutant Daan Dijkman) and Jayco AlUla tried to correct the situation. Meanwhile, riders in the back group also felt the “cat-and-mouse” effect: teammates of riders up the road disrupted the chase, making cooperation difficult and slowing the pursuit.

With 17 kilometres to go, the riders entered the Camel Cup Track in AlUla — and that’s where Christen’s day turned sour again, as the UAE youngster crashed for a second time. After a Tour Down Under already marked by injuries for UAE (including Jay Vine, Jhonatan Narváez, Vegard Stake Laengen and Mikkel Bjerg), the bad luck seemed to follow the team into Saudi Arabia.

Up front, the first group stayed focused on the finale. Still, the cooperation started to fray in the final lap, which briefly reopened the door for the chasers. Even Christen — helped by Dijkman, Julius Johansen and Domen Novak — was not too far back and managed to return to the bunch in extremis.

However, getting all the way back to the very front proved a bridge too far, and so the reduced lead group battled it out for the stage win. Lidl–Trek and Cofidis still had riders to organise, while Timo de Jong tried his luck with a late move. The Dutchman was caught just before the line, and Milan powered to victory from distance, with Fretin taking second.