Extended Highlights - Stage 2 - The AlUla Tour 2024 - video Dailymotion

The AlUla Tour

Discover the Stage 2 highlights     More information:  https://www.thealulatour.com/en/  https://www.facebook.com/thealulatour/  https://twitter.com/thealulatour  https://www.instagram.com/thesalulatour/    #TheAlUlaTour     More exclusive contents on Tour de France Club : https://www.letour.fr/fr/club    © Amaury Sport Organisation - www.aso.fr

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:08 Here comes Milano, but it's Kasper van Ouden.

00:12 Kasper van Ouden.

00:13 Here comes Groenewegen on the inside.

00:16 Groenewegen, did he take it on the line?

00:19 Kasper van Ouden is the stage winner.

00:22 It was a fantastic sprint for van Ouden.

00:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:28 Kasper van Ouden upset some of the more fancied sprinters

00:31 to win the first stage of the Alula Tour yesterday.

00:34 And the young Dutchman is relishing

00:36 the prospect of a first day in the leader's green jersey.

00:39 [SPEAKING DUTCH]

00:46 For me, it doesn't add more pressure.

00:47 I think my goal succeeded, so we can just have fun and ride

00:51 the best way we can.

00:53 And we just enjoy it.

00:54 And hopefully, we can do something again today.

00:57 But we will see.

00:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:02 Today's punchy finish is likely to prove too tough

01:05 for the pure sprinters.

01:07 But it could be perfect for a man like Soren Verenscholdt,

01:10 who won last year on the uphill drag to Abu Raqqa.

01:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:21 Yeah, it's a little bit--

01:22 it's not as steep.

01:23 But I think it will suit me well.

01:26 So just have to time the lead out.

01:28 So it goes a little bit down.

01:30 So just have to keep the momentum into the climb

01:33 so the other guys don't come from behind.

01:37 So, but yeah, we will see.

01:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:42 Brian Karkar also likes a tough sprint.

01:44 And he's wearing one of the luckiest numbers in cycling.

01:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:50 You're wearing number 51.

01:54 You have a smile on your face.

01:55 Because you know about number 51.

01:58 Yeah, yeah.

02:00 I have 51 win in professional.

02:05 And I try to--

02:07 today to take the 52.

02:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:13 Today's final could also be important in the context

02:16 of overall victory.

02:17 And the British champion Fred Wright

02:19 has promised to liven things up.

02:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:24 My plan is to pick up as many bonus seconds

02:26 as I can on the way to the final climb.

02:29 And yeah, try and survive.

02:31 Not lose too much time to the climbers.

02:33 And then yeah, try and win the overall.

02:36 Go for the GC.

02:37 Why not?

02:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:41 Stage two is the longest of this year's edition,

02:45 with a shade under 200 kilometers

02:47 to cover between Winter Park and the Sharon Nature Reserve.

02:51 There was also a bit more wind forecast today.

02:53 So there'll be a greater threat of echelons.

02:56 The final drag to the finish line

02:58 will really sting the legs, with average gradients of around 6%.

03:02 So the punchier sprinters could end up

03:04 vying for victory with some of the GC contenders.

03:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:09 There was a bit of crosswind action

03:15 before the live pictures began, with the peloton splitting

03:18 into four groups at one point.

03:20 But everything had calmed down, with around 65 kilometers to go.

03:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:27 Once again, there were five riders in the breakaway,

03:31 with several of the same teams as yesterday on the move.

03:35 Oskar Tell-Oskardi were this time represented in orange

03:38 by Ennekoitse Asparan, who discovered this race last year.

03:41 Andreas Miltiades, a 13-time champion of Cyprus,

03:48 was up there for the Terengganu cycling team,

03:50 along with two riders from Rujai Insurance.

03:53 Tegspiar Batshaikhan, the winner of last year's Tour of Thailand,

03:57 and Polychronos Tortsakis, the Greek time trial specialist

04:01 who made that late attack yesterday.

04:03 The fifth member of the group was Atsushi Oka

04:06 from JCL Team Yukio, who was quickest

04:09 at the first intermediate active sprint.

04:16 Today's bonus sprint had come early,

04:18 with Zabia Asparan, Ennekoitse's brother,

04:21 taking the three seconds ahead of Anders-Halland Johannesson

04:24 and Artur Saint-Pensart.

04:25 With 55 kilometers to go, the breakaway

04:30 had a lead of around 3 and 1/2 minutes,

04:32 with the peloton being driven by Jacob Ulula, Soudal Quick-Step,

04:36 and DSM Fermanic Post-Denel on behalf of their race

04:39 leader, Casper van Ouden.

04:45 The bunch ploughing into a cross headwind,

04:47 and they were clearly wary of being caught out again.

04:49 A sudden injection of pace quickly brought the gap down

04:55 to under two minutes.

04:56 Movistar trying to force some splits on behalf of their leader,

05:04 Davide Formolo, last year's runner-up who

05:06 was selected ahead of the defending champion, Ruben Guerrero.

05:10 No luck, but a few nerves in the peloton

05:12 caused a crash with one of the Saudi national riders

05:15 going to ground hard.

05:18 Oh, and a crash.

05:20 One of the Saudi riders has just hit the deck

05:22 with a very big fall.

05:25 This looks like Amad Al-Omrani.

05:29 The breakaway had meanwhile reached the second intermediate

05:32 active sprint, and Oka took another three points

05:35 ahead of Bat Saikhan.

05:36 Their fun at the front was soon over, though.

05:41 They were swallowed up by the peloton

05:43 with 34 and 1/2 kilometers remaining.

05:45 Well, here's something you don't see every day,

05:51 a mini sandstorm, which luckily didn't hit the peloton.

05:54 We saw Simon Yates caught out by a late puncher yesterday.

06:02 Today, it was Formolo's turn.

06:06 Problem here, right-hand side of the road for Davide Formolo.

06:10 This is not good news, because this race right now is full on.

06:13 Formolo has a problem.

06:15 The Italian chasing hard with the help of his teammates,

06:22 Yoan Jacobs and Matthias Norsgaard.

06:24 Meanwhile, the peloton were getting a front row seat

06:30 of one of the most spectacular sites in this part of the world,

06:33 or indeed anywhere in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

06:36 the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra,

06:39 which will host the start of Friday's fourth stage.

06:42 Perhaps the bunch slowed down to get a better look.

06:47 Either way, Formolo was safely back in with just over 16K to go.

06:50 Everyone starting to jostle for position on the run-in,

06:58 with the speed really increasing

07:00 as they suddenly moved into a tailwind section.

07:03 The peloton starting to thin out as the road began to rise,

07:06 with Cofidis working on the front for Kocka.

07:09 It was no real surprise to see Kronerwegen dropped.

07:12 He had, at any rate, been struggling with illness.

07:15 And then the GC favourites began to make their moves.

07:21 Rafael Maiker was the first man to light it up for UAE Team Emirates.

07:25 His teammate Finn Fischer-Black then had a go.

07:30 Simon Yates also right up there.

07:32 But the most decisive moment was ahead.

07:38 But the most decisive-looking attack came from Pierre Latour.

07:41 Soren van 't Scold is there with his Uno-X team.

07:51 They're trying to line this one up,

07:52 but Latour has still got a little bit of an advantage for Total Energie.

07:57 Have Uno-X got enough? 500 metres to go.

08:03 It's still Pierre Latour of Total Energie.

08:06 He is still there. He is still holding on.

08:09 They're desperately trying to close the gap now.

08:11 Uno-X are trying to fire with van 't Scold.

08:15 Is Pierre Latour going to get it on the line?

08:17 It's a furious sprint.

08:19 Latour is caught.

08:20 Here goes Soren van 't Scold.

08:22 Soren van 't Scold all the way to the line.

08:25 He was the favourite.

08:26 Van 't Scold takes it for Uno-X Mobility.

08:33 Soren van 't Scold becomes just the third rider to win multiple stages of the Alula Tour,

08:38 along with Rune Wegen and Phil Bauhaus.

08:40 The 23-year-old Norwegian securing his seventh career victory

08:44 and showing he is a force to be reckoned with in these punchy finishes.

08:48 As a bonus, the Uno-X Mobility man takes over from Van Uden as the race leader.

09:00 It was a little bit easier than the one we had last year that was really steep.

09:05 So this one was even better for me.

09:09 We wanted to stay in the front, but not too far up in the peloton in the last 4K.

09:17 So we did perfect and then we just tried to gather on the top

09:20 and just tried to keep the momentum in the last 500 metres

09:25 because it goes a little bit uphill, so you don't want to lose the power.

09:30 We just timed it perfect.

09:32 Veren 't Scold winning ahead of Henok Mouloubrahan,

09:35 the two-time African Road Race champion.

09:37 Nils Eikhoff and Van Uden both made the top five for DSM Fermanik PostNL,

09:42 either side of Kockaer.

09:43 Veren 't Scold and Van Uden are level on time,

09:49 but the Norwegian leads the race by virtue of better stage rankings.

09:53 He is also now on top in the red jersey standings,

10:00 leading by just a point from Van Uden.

10:02 Mouloubrahan and Kroonewegen have 12 apiece.

10:04 Ocker replaces Unai Zubeldia as leader of the most active rider competition.

10:11 They both have six points, but the Japanese rider is better placed overall.

10:15 And like Van Uden yesterday, Veren 't Scold has three jerseys.

10:20 He is also our best young rider.

10:21 Tomorrow should be a more classic sprint stage

10:27 between Alula International Airport and the Alula Camel Cup track,

10:30 so do join us again on Thursday and thanks for watching.

10:34 (MUSIC)

10:40 (MUSIC ENDS)

10:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Extended Highlights - Stage 2 - The AlUla Tour 2024

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