00:00Welcome to the 6th edition of the Alula Tour.
00:19This race always attracts some of the world's top sprinters, and 2026 is no exception.
00:26I'm really happy to be back here.
00:27I had some really good memories here.
00:30Is Jonathan Milan going to take it?
00:34I don't know if you remember, but before that race, you were on the track, and you turned
00:39around to me and said, I'm going to be one of the top sprinters in the world.
00:43That's my plan.
00:45Jonathan Milan firing to try and win his first ever stage at the Tour de France.
00:50It was always my goal to become one of the best ones.
00:55Now we are, I think, on the way.
01:00Among the GC contenders are Alan Hatherley, who finished 6th last year, and 21-year-old
01:05hotshot Jan Christen.
01:08Last year you had two podiums on some of the stages.
01:12Coming back for more of the same?
01:13It's a nice race.
01:14I think it suits me well.
01:16We've come with a really strong team.
01:17I think we have a good shot for GC, 100%.
01:20And I think our biggest competitors probably would be Jan Christen.
01:24I think he's the big standout.
01:28I'm super excited to start the season again.
01:31What do you know about this race?
01:33Well, it's a lot of wind and two hard stages, and the last stage can be quite excited.
01:40Well, it's some good competitors here, but we focus on ourselves.
01:45We have a super strong team here, and we try to play the cards right.
01:50The Alula Tour 2026 kicks off with a flat stage of 158 kilometers.
02:04It starts and ends at the Alula Camel Cup track, which hosted the final stage last year.
02:10There'll be a couple of intermediate active sprints during the day, counting towards the
02:14orange jersey for the most active rider, plus a bonus sprint with just under 9k to go,
02:193, 2 and 1 seconds available for the top three.
02:23A sprinter will no doubt be pulling on the first leader's jersey this afternoon, and Jonathan
02:27Milan is the man to beat.
02:38The four-man breakaway was in the process of shattering as the live pictures began.
02:43Two of the Oman national team members, Syed Al-Rabi and Mohamed Al-Wahibi, had already been
02:49caught, leaving just two men at the front, Ali Al-Sheikh of the Saudi national team, and
02:54Iman Rosli of the Terran Ghanu cycling team, who made the first two breakaways of last year's
02:59race.
03:01Well, the maximum gap had been as much as three and a half minutes, but the peloton were now
03:06closing fast.
03:07Al-Sheikh going solo at the front, but that sojourn wouldn't last long.
03:16The peloton all back together again, with 65km to go.
03:21And there was a bit of tension in the bunch, because there's always the possibility of cross
03:28winds and echelons, on these exposed desert roads.
03:35Whoa, whoa, crash right-hand side, and a big crash in the peloton.
03:41Fritz Bieste-Boss of Picnic Postenel going to ground here, as Jayko Aluda tried to up the
03:46tempo, but there wasn't too much wind at this point.
03:50Things eventually settling down again, with Varo van Gheeloa also licking his wounds after
03:54hitting the deck.
03:55There would then be another crash, with much bigger GC implications, involving one of the
04:02race favourites in Jan Christen.
04:05The UAE man caught up here, just at the moment where several of the sprint teams stepped on
04:09the gas again.
04:10Oh, and that's a problem there, number 41, Jan Christen, the race favourite for the overall,
04:17and Christen is down in this crash.
04:21Lidl Trek, Kofidis and Sudal Quickstep causing a split in the peloton.
04:25And Christen, Hathalie and the other GC riders were on the wrong side of it.
04:31Well, the race was really on now.
04:3318 riders in this front group, including the sprinters Jonathan Milan, Phil Bauhaus, a former
04:38winner of this race, Fabio Jakobsen, Milan Fretin and Fernando Gaviria.
04:45The peloton slowly eating into the gap, but the chasers couldn't get themselves organised
04:49properly, and it started to go back out again as they approached the Camel Cup track.
04:54The 18 leaders would go over the finish line twice before the final sprint, and they were
04:58now leading by more than 30 seconds.
05:01At this point, it looked as though Milan and co would indeed contest the first stage victory.
05:09And Jan Christen has hit the deck again, Christen is down for the second time.
05:18Incredibly more problems for Jan Christen, who was decidedly having one of those days.
05:23The young Swiss set for another frantic chase.
05:26Up at the front, meanwhile, it was still full gas, with the leaders holding on to their slender
05:30advantage.
05:33Heading into the final lap, there was a bonus sprint, with Mark Donovan pocketing the maximum
05:38three seconds.
05:40His team-mate Matteo Moschetti, who won at the Camel Cup track on the final day last year,
05:45was another contender here for the stage win.
05:48One lap to go.
05:52Christen fighting to save his race with his UAE team-mates, and they eventually latch back
05:57onto the back of the peloton.
06:00This one was going down to the wire.
06:02The sprint group now just ten seconds ahead, as a few riders tried to fire across, but would
06:07they catch them in time?
06:10One kilometre of racing, they're just going to make it by the looks of things.
06:15Moving up, Milan is ready, Gaviria's right on his wheel, Gaviria's locked in.
06:24Jakobsen gets ready.
06:28Fretin is set for the sprint.
06:32Big move on the right-hand side for Makutis.
06:35Moving up, here comes Moschetti, he wants to win on this Alula Camel track again.
06:40Big attack on the right-hand side, as Dion goes for it for the team of Picnic Post NL.
06:46Big acceleration by the Picnic Post NL rider, who has stolen a march on the rest of this peloton
06:53front group of riders, and he goes clear.
06:56This is a big move here, Gaviria's get ready, can he hold on all the way to the line?
07:04Jonathan Milan gets set, it's going to be a sprint from this group of 18 riders.
07:09Milan gets set to go, and here goes the acceleration.
07:13Jonathan Milan right on the wheel, Fretin is trying to go as well.
07:17Milan, Jonathan Milan against Fretin, but it's going to be the first win of the season for Jonathan Milan.
07:24Milan, he wins for Lidl Trek.
07:35As we saw at the start of the programme, Jonathan Milan took one of his first road wins here at the Alula Tour in 2023,
07:42before becoming one of the top sprinters in the world.
07:45Last year, he claimed nine victories, including two at the Tour de France, where he also won the green jersey.
07:51And the 25-year-old Italian is off to the perfect start in 2026.
07:58It was a bit tricky, you know, when we are not that many in the green, in the front.
08:05You can expect always everything, maybe a little group of three or four riders that attack,
08:10and then you're not able to catch them anymore.
08:13I guess it was really good to hold everyone together, let's say.
08:18And, yeah, they delivered me just in a perfect position.
08:22Jonathan Milan!
08:24Milan taking it ahead of Fretin and Moschetti, with Laurence Rex and Lorenzo Mazin completing the top five,
08:30as the league group just about held on.
08:32De Jong, who tried his luck from distance, ended up ninth.
08:36Milan is the first man into the leader's green jersey, then with a four-second lead over Fretin.
08:41Despite all of his troubles, Christen only dropped 21 seconds, the same as Hathalie, Dunbar, Higuita and the other GC favourites.
08:50Milan is also the early points leader, although Moschetti will wear the red jersey on his behalf in Wednesday's second stage.
08:57Donovan takes the orange jersey as the most active rider, having picked up four points on this first stage.
09:03He leads Al-Wahaibi and Alex Kirsch.
09:07And Fretin will be in white tomorrow as the leader of the youth classification.
09:11He leads Hugo Page by six seconds.
09:15There's another sprint stage to come on Wednesday.
09:17Milan will be looking to double up, and the GC riders will once again be looking to avoid trouble.
09:22Join us for that tomorrow, and thanks for watching.
09:25We'll see you next time.
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