Simon Yates snatches AlUla Tour title with nailbiting final-stage victory

Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) put his team back on track to win the final stage and the overall at the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia.

The British rider needed the vital bonus seconds on the line that came with victory on stage 5 to edge out main GC threats William Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step) and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates).

The three riders finished in that order after a closely-fought sprint and kept the same placings on the GC podium, with Yates finishing ahead of Lecerf by three seconds and Fisher-Black on the same time.

The win for Yates ended a tough period for the team after a string of bad luck and crashes had taken out several of the squad’s riders in several races in Australia, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

Read more: 'A hell of a week' as illness and crashes continue to blight Jayco AlUla

“I was a bit nervous because I thought that Finn was second on the stage and someone was coming quickly on my left-hand side but it was a job well done. It’s an important race for us, so it’s fantastic that we pulled it off,” Yates said at the finish.

The stage was dominated by the final climb that peaked out with around 8km remaining. At that point, Yates, Fisher-Black, Lecerf and Rafal Majka were clear of the field.

Fisher-Black took three vital bonus seconds at the top of the climb to edge himself into the leader’s jersey on the road but, despite the quartet working well, and UAE’s firepower, it was Yates who had the strongest sprint.

Read more: Simon Yates: I want to try to take it to these super teams

“I tried to shake them on the climb for the GC but I just didn’t have the legs to do it. So I tried to do the sprint for the stage and managed to pull it off. So I’m pretty happy,” he said.

“It was quite a hard run-in so I had to really pace myself. I tried on the first steep part but I couldn’t really shake anyone so I had to bide my time and slowly come back to those guys at the front,” Yates added.

Yates has built his entire season around the Tour de France with the hope of breaking onto the podium in July after finishing fourth last year.

“There’s still some work to do but there are much bigger ambitions in the summer,” he said before making his way to the podium.