The third leg of the Saudi Tour 2023 begins today and stretches from the Mansheya train to Abu Raqa, covering 159.2 km, which Al Ula covers until the day after tomorrow, Thursday. The race continued yesterday with the second stage between the Winter Park and the cliffs of the waterfall of records, at a distance of 184 km, and the crown of the race is overcoming the total distance of the five stages of the race, which reaches a total distance of 830 km. Dutch rider Dylan Groenewegen won the first stage of the first stage of the Saudi Tour 2023, which started yesterday in Al-Ula province, organized by the Ministry of Sports in cooperation with the Saudi Arabian Cycling Federation. 180.5 km, which was determined by “Dylan Gronewijn” in a time of 4 hours 7 minutes and 59 seconds, and the Serbian cyclist “Dogan Rajovic” of the Bahrain Victories team came in second, 4 seconds behind the owner. The first place, and the third place went to the German participant “Maximilian Richard” from the French team Covidis.
This is the third cycling event in Saudi Arabia and will be hosted by Al-Ula Province between 30 January and 3 February in cooperation with the Saudi Arabian Cycling Federation and under the auspices of the UCI International Federation as an extension of the global hosting hosted in the Kingdom. 211 athletes representing 16 teams from several teams from all over the world will take part in the third race of the Saudi Tour, as this race will cover a total distance of 851 km, passing through five stages, which will be as follows: The first stage of them starts on January 30, 2023 AD, from Al-Ula Khyber International Airport, at a distance of 180.5 km.
The second stage starts from the Winter Park to the rocks of the Sijilat waterfall, 184 km long.
The third leg stretches from the Mansheya train to Abu Rak and is 159.2 km long.
The fourth stage starts from the Maraya Theater to Harrat Averid, 163.4 km long.
The fifth stage completes from the old city of Al-Ula to the Maraya Theater with a length of 142.9 km. The Saudi tour is attended by seven international teams licensed by the International Cycling Union, namely: Team Astana Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan), Team Bahrain Victorious (Bahrain), Team Cofidis (France), Team Movistar (Spain), Team Jaico Al-Ula (Australia) ), Team D MS DSM (Netherlands), Team Emirates (UAE) and 6 licensed UCI ProTeams teams: Team Panjol WB (Belgium), Team Euskaltel-Euskade (Spain), Human Power Health (USA), USA), Team Q36. 5 Pro (Switzerland), Team UNO-X Pro (Norway), Team Koratec (Italy), in addition to the 3 teams invited to participate, namely Team Saudi Cycling Federation (Saudi Arabia), Team Telengano Polygon (Malaysia) and JCL Ukyo Team (Japan).
Notably, the Saudi Touring Cycle Race is one of the initiatives of the Quality of Life Program which aims to strengthen national efforts to improve and enhance the quality of life in the Kingdom, increase the participation of sports in society and ensure that racers are provided with an integrated cultural sports experience that reflects the development witnessed by the kingdom.