The penultimate day of racing at the AlUla Tour saw an uphill sprint finish, where Team dsm-firmenich PostNL produced a brilliant lead-out, before finisher Casper van Uden sprinted to a good third place at the line.
After Thursday’s crosswind chaos, Friday was a more mundane affair with lower wind speeds so a three rider break managed to escape early on in the day. The stage took on a more familiar affair, with the team riding well as a unit and helping to set the pace at the head of the bunch, honouring the race lead. As the kilometres ticked by, the breakaway’s advantage dwindled and they were eventually caught inside ten kilometres to go. Coming to the fore of the bunch, the team peeled off one-by-one, turning the screw and drastically increasing the pace with three kilometres remaining. Setting up Van Uden for the uphill drag, the young Dutchman kicked as hard as he could and dug deep all the way to the finish, but two riders were just stronger on the day. Nonetheless, it was a good result in third after a brilliant lead-out and it secured another podium finish for the team; making it at least third place on every stage so far for the squad.
