Clap de fin sur l'AlUla Tour ! L'édition 2025 se terminait ce samedi avec une 5e étape sans relief arrivant à l'AlUla Camel Cup Track après près de 170 km de course. Comme il y a deux jours, le vent a joué un rôle important et bien animé le final, avec des bordures dans les 30 dernières bornes qui ont coupé le peloton en deux. Après une belle bataille, un groupe d'environ 35 coureurs est arrivé pour la gagne, et ce n'est pour une fois pas Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) qui s'est montré le plus rapide au sprint. Enfermé, le Belge n'a pas pu s'exprimer, et Matteo Moschetti en a profité pour parfaire le triomphe de l'équipe Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team cette semaine, l'équipe suisse repartant avec une 3e victoire d'étape en plus du général avec Tom Pidcock !
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SportTranscription
00:00Yeah, if we go on the offensive, try and win the stage, that's probably the best way to
00:12try and defend.
00:15Now he starts to accelerate a little bit harder.
00:18Pidcock has used this immense power to go clear on the climb.
00:22Well, what an escapade it has been.
00:27Tom Pidcock, tremendous win, stage four of the Alula Tour.
00:35The Alula Tour 2025 is Tom Pidcock's to lose after his demonstration yesterday on the sky
00:42views of Harata Wairid.
00:44The British rider leads by 29 seconds as we head into today's fifth and final stage.
00:50But the wind is once again going to be a factor and Pidcock is taking nothing for granted.
00:57A lot of wind today.
00:58So yeah, it's going to be a big day of echelons, I expect for sure there's going to be splits
01:05and different teams with different plans.
01:08So we'll just have to try and stay on the good side of those splits.
01:15We start and finish today at the Alula Camel Cup track, which is part of Saudi Arabia's
01:19rich sporting heritage.
01:21Tim Meliere is aiming for his hat trick on the day of his son's birthday.
01:27My son has two years today, so yeah, nice day.
01:31I'm going to take every opportunity over here, it will be really nice, but not that easy.
01:42Meanwhile Dylan Groenewegen is looking to give the home team, Jacob Alula, something
01:46to celebrate on this final day.
01:48We focus, it's the last day, so everybody feel their legs maybe a little bit, but everybody
01:54know that there is some wind.
01:56We will see what happens in the race.
01:58We have also our GC to defend and then hopefully we have me in the final to sprint.
02:04Also from a small group maybe, but yeah, that's what you need to see in the final.
02:13There are crosswinds forecast in the early part of stage five, so it could be chaos from
02:17the off.
02:18Both the GC teams and the sprint teams will have to be ready to jump if it all kicks off.
02:23Other than that, it looks a straightforward sprint stage, with Meliere obviously the favourite
02:27to get another win.
02:29Just under 170 kilometres to bring this fifth edition to a close.
02:44Well today's breakaway only formed shortly before the live pictures began, with four
02:48men around a minute ahead of the peloton.
02:50They were Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Farmer, Matthias Breinhoy of the Terengganu Cycling
02:56Team, Nicolo Garibaud of JCL Team Yukio and Seriel Dessal of Wagner-Bazin, a team-mate
03:03of the most active rider Jens Reinders.
03:09And the reason they only got away relatively late in the stage is because there was absolute
03:13chaos at the start, sadly before the cameras started rolling.
03:17The race split in the crosswinds with a group of around 30 riders, including Pidcock and
03:21Meliere going clear.
03:27The riders in second and third overall, Greiner Keplinger and Alan Hatherley, were both caught
03:31out.
03:32But through the collective efforts of Bahrain Victorious, Jaco Alula and others, it all
03:37came back together again.
03:41So a fairly classic race situation, with the peloton keeping the breakaway close and wary
03:46of any more attacks in the wind.
03:52While not wanting to get caught out, Pidcock soon sent his team to the front of the bunch,
03:56Q36.5 apparently deciding that attack was the best form of defence.
04:03Well Pidcock seems like he wants to take the race on, rather than let any other team take
04:09advantage of his squad.
04:11So he's going on the offensive most of the time, as opposed to waiting and seeing whether
04:17the team of Jaco Alula or the team of Bahrain Victorious take the initiative.
04:25Pidcock's men just keeping an eye on things, not really driving the peloton on.
04:28But there was still plenty of nerves in this bunch, as illustrated by a crash between the
04:32Japanese champion Marino Kobayashi and Spanish rider Pablo Carrascosa.
04:38Luckily there didn't seem to be any major damage done.
04:44Well things remained fairly settled for the next 20km or so, but when the wind picked
04:49up again, a couple of teams decided to put the hammer down.
04:54Set out the echelon alarm across the desert plains of Saudi Arabia, because this race
05:00is now on.
05:01The second of all, Rainer Kaeplinger is in a group of drop riders.
05:08We're just hearing on radio tour, Kaeplinger has now been dropped as well.
05:12Look at the speed and Bahrain Victorious have realised that they've lost a rider.
05:17Look at Pidcock moving up.
05:19Hatherley now has been distanced as well.
05:23And so for the second time today, Tom Pidcock's closest challengers found themselves on the
05:28wrong side of a split.
05:29A steep learning curve this for Hatherley, who hasn't done much road racing and won't
05:33have much experience of echelons.
05:36Kaeplinger also on the back foot.
05:41The gap was only around 10 or 15 seconds, but UNO-X Mobility were keen to drive it on.
05:46The Norwegian squad had three riders in the top seven this morning, Frederik de Varchenis,
05:51Johannes Coulset and Odney Holter, and they sensed the possibility of snatching an overall
05:56podium.
06:00Slowly but surely they increased the front group's advantage to over 20 seconds.
06:05Pidcock, Mollier and Groenewegen were all in this front group, but it was all about
06:09UNO-X.
06:10There were bonus seconds available as they swept over the finish line for the first time.
06:14Three for de Varchenis, two for Coulset and one for Pidcock.
06:18Now they needed a 45 second gap at the finish line to eject both Kaeplinger and Hatherley
06:23from the podium.
06:25UNO-X are putting Kaeplinger and Hatherley to the sword.
06:34So it was two races for the price of one in this final, UNO-X targeting the overall
06:38podium and the sprinters getting ready for their final shootout, a grandstand finish
06:44to this Alula Tour.
06:48Here comes Milano, he's ready, Kristoff is there as well, Milano hits the front, Groenewegen
06:54is there, Moschetti is there as well, look at Moschetti go, look at the flat out rider
06:59in Q36.5, it's going to be a win for Moschetti, Matteo Moschetti of Q36.5 gives them the stage
07:09win and Tom Pidcock wins the overall, what a finish to the Alula Tour.
07:18Who is going to be second and third overall, look at Hatherley on his absolute limit, the
07:23South African, they are fighting for time, they cross the line now and we'll wait and
07:28see what the clock says.
07:32What a way for Q36.5 pro cycling to round out what has been a brilliant week, Matteo
07:38Moschetti landing his 10th career win and his first since back in September 2023.
07:44He was led out by Tom Pidcock who claims his first GC victory in the professional ranks,
07:49the British star has made a dream start to life with his new team.
07:54To be honest I'm a bit emotional, it's quite a fairy tale almost, to see how much it means
08:02to these guys, it's incredible, it's a big step in my career if I'm honest, the concentration
08:08it takes at this level to defend a lead every day, I definitely realise how hard it is,
08:14but I think it's a big step.
08:17It's hard to believe, what a week, today the main goal was to keep safe Tom and in the
08:25end I think he paid us for all we did this week for him and I'm really delighted to thank
08:32him and the whole team for that victory.
08:37Moschetti winning the final stage ahead of Runewegen as Jacob Alula ended the week empty
08:42handed, Milano, Christoph and Fedorov completed the top 5 with Melia down in 13th and the
08:48chase group at 57 seconds.
08:53Pidcock's final winning margin was a minute and 9 seconds while Unix played it perfectly,
08:58all three of their riders leapfrogged Keplinger and Hathaway who slipped to 5th and 6th.
09:06Pidcock also goes home with the red jersey as the winner of the points classification,
09:10four riders ended up on 30 points but the race winner was obviously the best placed overall.
09:17As well as winning the team's classification, Unix claimed a 1-2 in the youth classification
09:21with Colset and Halter, it was an excellent week for the Norwegians.
09:26And Jens Reinders finished up as our most active rider after getting into three breakaways.
09:32Thanks very much for joining us for the 5th edition of the Alula Tour and we'll see you again in 2026.