Race leader Jonathan Milan stormed to a second successive victory on stage 2 of the AlUla Tour after a textbook lead-out from his Lidl-Trek teammates, who positioned the Italian fast man in perfect position through the final few corners.
Final lead-out man Simone Consonni hit the wind with the green jersey waiting in his wheel, and once he came to the front, once again, no one could live with his violent acceleration and top speed. With back-to-back victories, he extends his overall lead in the race thanks to another 10 bonus seconds gained on the line.
Daniel Skerl (Bahrain Victorious) free-styled to second place after his sprint leader Phil Bauhaus had a puncture in the final 6km, while Pascal Ackermann took his first podium for new team Jayco AlUla in third.
After the chaos of the opening stage, the wind did threaten to disrupt stage 2 for a 30km period, but as the race headed for its final three laps to the finish at AlManshiyah Train Station, the splits came back together for a more straightforward sprint finale.
"It was our dream scenario. I'm really happy from how far out we controlled the race, for how we moved in the echelons. With this team, almost everything is coming quite easily," said Milan.
"In the end, it was a perfect lead-out, and I just had to sprint and do my best. Hopefully, we'll go like this for all of the season, but I'm really happy for how we started.We arrived here with a good condition and I think we are really in a good level, so I'm pretty happy with this."
Racing resumes in AlUla on Thursday for stage 3 and the first uphill test to Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah, with Milan admitting, "Tomorrow is another pretty hard stage, and the final is maybe not 100% for me, but of course the day after, we will try again."
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How it unfolded
After the opening, wind-affected stage 1, riders kicked off the second day of racing in Saudi Arabia from the AlManshiyah Train Station with another rapid 152-kilometre day on the menu.
Five riders quickly formed an early breakaway in the opening 15km of racing, with Federico Iacomoni (Team UKYO), teammates Zhe Yie Kee and Muhammad Nur Aiman Bin Rosli (both Terengganu Cycling Team), and two riders from the Omani national team, Said Alrahbi and Mohammed Al-Wahibi.
They led most of the all opening half of the stage, but into the final 80km, the strong winds started to kick up sand into the peloton and more echelons began to form with the top teams scrambling to stay in position.
With the riders fanned across the road, a second peloton sat around 30 seconds down on the leading group – which had already swept up the final four remnants of the early breakaway – but the constant changes of direction on the course allowed some respite from the most exposed sections.
Into the final 60km and the gap had decreased heavily to around the 10-second mark, allowing those in the chase to breathe a sigh of relief when the catch was eventually made with 40km left to race.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lidl-Trek did secure control with the race leader Milan among their ranks, but two riders nipped off the front in an opportunistic move as the chaos calmed, Stefan de Bod (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) and Mathias Bregnhøj (Terengganu Cycling Team).
There was a chance to look at the finishing run-in with 21 km to go, two kilometres after the two attackers were caught, but it was the second look at the finish line 10km later which was the important one, with Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) making up some of the time he lost yesterday with three bonus seconds.
Two of the potential challengers to Milan saw their chances evaporate in the finale, with Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) puncturing and requiring a back wheel change, so he would not return. Fabio Jakobsen (Picnic PostNL) ran out of steam as hamstring cramp forced him to drop back just after his team has upped the pace the bunch.
Tudor Pro Cycling took control for some of the final lap, but Lidl-Trek were waiting in the wings to take over at the right moment. That moment came with 2.5km to go, although Milan wasn't in the perfect place just yet.
Momentarily slowing things down, Milan was allowed to get back to his lead-out train and they started winding up to the finish. The Italian launched from second wheel with the line in sight and he was never going to be denied a second stage win, emulating Peter Sagan with a hulk celebration over the line in the green jersey.
An apt celebration of strength for Milan (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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