AlUla Tour: Tom Pidcock attacks late to win stage 2

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An abridged second stage of the AlUla Tour saw Tom Pidcock score his first victory for new team Q36.5, the British rider triumphing with a stinging 500-metre solo move on the uphill finish at Bir Jaydah Mountain.

Pidcock, who moved to the Swiss squad from Ineos Grenadiers over the winter, beat Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain Victorious) and Alan Hatherly (Jayco-AlUla) to the line at the end of the mountainous 158km, which had earlier seen a full closing lap removed and the race neutralised due to issues with the road surface.

As a result of his win, the sixth of his professional road career, Pidcock now takes over the leader's jersey from stage 1 winner Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep). 

He took four seconds over Kepplinger and seven over Hatherly at the line and now leads the former by eight seconds with Hatherly third overall at 13 seconds.

"Today was super important for me. It's a new team, all these great people, and I just wanted to do them proud today. The team rode brilliantly, they had full commitment for me, and I was highly motivated for today," Pidcock said after his victory.

"I knew I was in good shape. This year I'm on SRAM and the power meter is different. When you actually look objectively, I'm in a really, really good place, but of course after a winter when you haven't competed against anyone and you've done a lot of efforts on your own, you actually don't know. So, it's nice to get a bit of assurance.

"The first time I thought I'd test the waters a little bit. Today we said we'd just try and win the stage. I felt the wind a little bit so I thought I was just going to wait a bit longer. We got to 500 to go and the road was going down to the left. On the right-hand side, the road was a bit higher, so I thought I'd go to the right and then use the flatter section to attack.

"Before coming here, we said that today is the day to win the race. It's easier to defend than to take time on stage 4, so hopefully there's a bit of a buffer. This race is won on seconds really, so of course it's still all to play for but we're in a strong position."

How it unfolded

On paper the AlUla Old Town to Bir Jaydah Mountain stage was the toughest stage of the five-day race due to a hilly circuit and a 9% climb to the line. However the stage was cut by 30km at the 48km to go mark due to "surface issues" on the major descent of the finishing circuit, with the race also neutralised until five kilometres to race.

As a result, the two-man break of Jens Reynders (Wagner Bazin WB) and Simone Raccani (JCL Team UKYO) – who were a minute up the road – were held back on the sand-strewn, gravelly, torn-up roads leading up to the descent. As the commissaire's car took control of the pacemaking, a large peloton formed at the head of the race for the final kilometres.

Having already tackled the closing climb once, the peloton rolled slowly down the descent, which seemed to feature a smoother surface than the climb. At the 10km to go mark, it was announced that racing would restart for the final 5km of the stage, including the final 3km ramp to the finish line.

At the 6km mark, Reynders and Raccani were sent back up the road. The pair hit the final 5km with a 30-second lead reinstated, while behind them the pace rocketed as soon as the flag dropped for the race restart.

Reynders and Raccani were brought back just 3km from the finish as Jayco-AlUla, Bahrain Victorious, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG led the charge at the front. Ahead of them, on the road to the finish, lay slopes reaching 18% gradient in places.

As the road angled ever steeper upwards in the final 1,500 metres, the big contenders moved towards the front with Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) taking it up on the front for teenage teammate Adrià Pericas.

At one kilometre to go, Hugo Aznar (Kern Pharma) made a move off the front as Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) lay just behind along with Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain Victorious), Alessandro Fancellu (JCL Team UKYO) and Jayco-AlUla pair Eddie Dunbar and Alan Hatherly.

Pidcock bided his time until the riders passed the 500-metre marker, the steepest slopes over and done with. There, he made the biggest move of the stage to put in a stinging acceleration and leave his rivals behind.

Further back, it was Kepplinger and Hatherly who proved the strongest of the chasers, the latter riding his first road race with his new WorldTour team after a successful mountain bike racing career.

The pair were the only men to cross the line within 10 seconds of Pidcock, with Dunbar at 18 seconds and Stefan De Bod (Terengganu) at 21 seconds rounding out the top five.

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