Bahrain Victorious’ Milan claims photo-finish win in Saudi Tour

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Team Bahrain Victorious rider Jonathan Milan powered to a spectacular victory yesterday in the 184-kilometre second stage of the Saudi Tour, part of this year’s Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Asia circuit.

It took a photo-finish to determine the winner as the young Italian sprinter beat stage one winner Dylan Groenewegen to the line.

It was another windy stage in the open desert roads of AlUla, and the peloton remained intact for most of the day, navigating through the headwinds.

But 30km from the finish line, the road turned left, and crosswinds split the peloton into three groups.

Milan stayed in group one, with the rest of Bahrain Victorious’ riders caught in the second group.

In the last km, Milan and Groenewegen dueled, and with a few hundred metres to go, Milan launched his sprint early catching Groenewegen off guard, and managed to hold his effort to the line.

Milan commented at the end of the stage: “I’m super happy about this win.

It was a big goal of mine from the last year when I saw that this Tour can be important in the future for me.

“I want to say big thanks to my teammates, they did an amazing job today, and they helped me until the final, thanks to them.

“Again, I’m super happy with this result for me and for the team.” Bahrain Victorious are competing with seven riders in the Saudi Tour, which is set to feature five stages.

Bahraini Ahmed Madan is a part of the squad, as are Santiago Buitrago, Filip Maciejuk, Rainer Kepplinger, Andrea Pasqualon and Dusan Rajovic, who claimed second place in the first stage. Stage three is set today over 159.5km.

It will begin at Al Manshiyah Train Station and end at Abu Rakah.

The event is scheduled to continue until Friday. Meanwhile, Bahrain Victorious are set to begin today their campaign in the 74th Volta a la Communitat Valenciana, which gets the European stage racing season underway on the east coast of Spain.

The team includes Pello Bilbao, Damiano Caruso, Mikel Landa, Gino Mader, Matej Mohoric, Wout Poels and Fred Wright.