SaudiTour: Final Stage

Phil Bauhaus hit back and retook the top spot in the SaudiTour Overall by winning stage 5 from Bouhanni – Richard Jones of Ribble Weldtitle got himself into the days main little breakaway

SaudiTour: Final Stage

Thanks to his second stage success this week after an impressive sprint, Phil Bauhaus made history by becoming the first ever overall winner of the Saudi Tour. The final day was indeed decided in a bunched sprint in Al Masmak. Led out in style by his prestigious Bahrain-McLaren team mate Mark Cavendish, the German conquered the win ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) and Arvid de Kleijn (Riwald Readynez Cycling Team). Bauhaus finishes first on GC with a 2 second advantage over Bouhanni and 13 seconds over Rui Costa.

Photo: @thesauditour – Cavendish in the background celebrates the stage win by Bauhaus

At the start of the day, the 114 remaining riders of the Saudi Tour had the huge honor of being welcomed at the impressive Princess Nourah University for the start of the fifth and final stage of the event. On the day’s menu: 144 kms with a first loop in the desert north of Riyadh before heading back towards Al Masmak.

As expected the wind had a strong consequence on the first part of the race. Several groups of riders tried their luck including Jack Rees and Steve Lampier but never managed to build a big enough gap over the very fast peloton. Even Mark Cavendish (Bahrain McLaren) was part of an 11-man group that enjoyed a 30 second lead before being gobbled up by the hungry peloton at km 40.

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The first intermediate active sprint (km 46) was claimed by Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) taking with him three other riders on a breakaway: Ellsay (Rally Cycling Team), Richard Jones (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Irisarri (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). The advantage of the four men grew to 5’45” at km 55. From then on, team Arkéa-Samsic of race leader (and green jersey) Nacer Bouhanni started chasing. The front riders entered the feeding zone with an advantage that had dropped to 2’15”. The gap even went down to 20” but with no real danger within the front group, it started growing again.

Indeed with 25kms to go, the courageous four could enjoy a 2’40” advantage but there was not much to be done against the peloton led by teams Arkéa-Samsic, Bahrain-McLaren and Circus-Wanty Gobert. Richard Jones was the first of the front men to be dropped and eventually the peloton bunched up together again with just under 5kms to go. Time had come for the expected sprint finish.

Like on stage 3, Bahrain-McLaren took command on the final straight with Mark Cavendish beautifully leading out his young sprinter Phil Bauhaus. The German flew to the line beating his main rival Nacer Bouhanni after a spectacular battle. Third place went to Arvid de Kleijn (Riwald Readynez Cycling Team). The points classification was won by Bouhanni (red jersey) while Andreas Kron (Riwald Readynez Cycling Team) finishes best young rider and Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) conquers the most active rider’s jersey.

Photo: @thesauditour

Another good day at the front for Ribble Weldtite
“The stage was tough”, said a spokesman for the Ribble Weldtite team, adding “there was a really fast start with a 55kph average for the first 30 minsutes. Our initial objective today was to get someone in the move with everyone bar Charles trying. Steve, Jack and Zeb were active throughout the first part of the race before a crosswind section where the big teams looked to test each other and force splits. This turned to a direct headwind after 55km where the break of four including Rich (Richard Jones) eventually went”.

Richard “…it was a fairly measured effort and we worked well together. We were riding to react to the leeway the bunch was giving us and with 40k to go, the gap was down to 50 seconds but with some crashes in the bunch, it went back out to over 2 minutes with 25k to go. The final 20k was a fast tailwind run back into Riyad and we were finally swept up just under 6k to go.”

Stage 5
1 Phil Bauhaus Leader jersey Bahrain – McLaren 03:18:57
2 Nacer Bouhanni Point jersey Team Arkéa – Samsic
3 Arvid De Kleijn Riwal Readynez Cycling
4 Timothy Dupont Circus – Wanty Gobert
5 Imerio Cima Gazprom – RusVelo
6 Matteo Malucelli Caja Rural – Seguros RGA
7 Youcef Reguigui Terengganu Inc. TSG
8 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg NTT Pro Cycling Team
9 Carlos Barbero NTT Pro Cycling Team
10 Jetse Bol Burgos – BH

16 Charles Page Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
17 Mark Cavendish Bahrain – McLaren
19 Rui Costa UAE Team Emirates
25 Matthew Gibson Burgos – BH
31 Daniel McLay Team Arkéa – Samsic
32 James Shaw Riwal Readynez Cycling
45 Connor Swift Team Arkéa – Samsic
71 Oliver Moors Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 18
74 Zeb Kyffin Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 23
77 Jacob Tipper Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 27
88 Jack Rees Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 51
99 Niki Terpstra Total Direct Energie @ 01:34
104 Fred Wright Bahrain – McLaren @ 01:59
109 Steve Lampier Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 02:07
114 Richard Jones Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 04:19

Overall
1 Phil Bauhaus Bahrain – McLaren 17:53:38
2 Nacer Bouhanni Team Arkéa – Samsic @ 02
3 Rui Costa UAE Team Emirates @ 13
4 Youcef Reguigui Terengganu Inc. TSG Cycling Team @ 22
5 Heinrich Haussler Bahrain – McLaren @ 23
6 Carlos Barbero NTT Pro Cycling Team @ 24
7 Sergey Chernetskiy Gazprom – RusVelo @ 25
8 Andreas Kron Riwal Readynez Cycling Team @ 25
9 Geoffrey Soupe Total Direct Energie @ 26
10 August Jensen Riwal Readynez Cycling Team @ 26

19 Connor Swift Team Arkéa – Samsic @ 44
20 James Shaw Riwal Readynez Cycling Team @ 57
46 Daniel McLay Team Arkéa – Samsic @ 05:55
54 Zeb Kyffin Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 09:07
65 Mark Cavendish Bahrain – McLaren @ 11:44
67 Fred Wright Bahrain – McLaren @ 12:03
81 Steve Lampier Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 16:44
86 Charles Page Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 19:14
98 Matthew Gibson Burgos – BH @ 26:35
103 Jacob Tipper Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 30:50
108 Richard Jones Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 34:34
109 Jack Rees Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 36:28
112 Oliver Moors Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling @ 43:38