Saudi Tour: Van Gils wins stage 4

Lotto Soudal won their second stage at the Saudi Tour after Maxim Van Gils soloed to victory on stage 4 at the Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid.

The 22-year-old second-year pro followed Andrea Bagioli's (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) attack on the double-digit gradient slopes of the main climb of the day, 10 kilometres from the finish before the Italian cracked under pressure from the Belgian, leaving Van Gils to ride alone to the finish.

Luka Mezgec (BikeExchange-Jayco) took second place ahead of Tim Declercq (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), though at 40 seconds back it means that Van Gils is the new race leader.

He heads into Saturday's final stage with a 36-second advantage over second-placed Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), while Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) is third at 48 seconds.

Earlier in the day, the wind provoked echelons and splits in the peloton, with Buitrago on the wrong side of a move which saw Van Gils, Oss, Mezgec and the majority of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl get up the road.

The winning move was made on the three-kilometre climb at the end of the stage from the group largely made up of non-climbers. There, the average gradient of 12 per cent enough for Van Gils to push on and build an insurmountable lead to take his first career victory.

Buitrago and Costa would eventually make it back to the group, taking advantage of the steep slopes to do so, though by that time the winning move – and the race lead – had already gone.