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.
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