Yannis Voisard times it to perfection in uphill finish at AlUla Tour

Yannis Voisard (Tudor) played his cards to perfection to win stage 3 of the AlUla Tour in an uphill finish to Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah and take the lead in the general classification.

Voisard was the strongest in a sprint from a reduced group at the climb’s summit after a tactical finale, finishing ahead of Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) and Sergio Higuita (XDS-Astana), who were the only riders credited with the same time as the Swiss rider.

Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was one of the pre-stage favourites, and when he found himself solo up front inside the final kilometre, it looked like he was going to take the win, but it was another Swiss rider who came to the fore. Christen eventually was caught and finished 9th, 0:06 behind Voisard.

For Voisard, this win is the second of the 27-year-old Swiss rider's career, adding to his victory on stage 4 at the Tour de Hongrie in 2023.

Nader Hazazi (Saudi Arabia), Zhe Yie Kee (Terengganu Cycling Team), and Muhammad Nur Aiman Bin Rosli (Terengganu Cycling Team) formed the day's early breakaway, the latter for the third consecutive stage. 

Eventually, the Terengganu duo would pull clear from Hazazi, who was distanced, and would work well in tandem, still holding over 1:00 inside the final 30km. However, the advantage rapidly dwindled, and the peloton made the catch with 25km remaining.

There was a crash with 10km remaining on a steep descent, and among those involved were Davide Stella (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Laurenz Rex (Soudal Quick-Step), and Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies). The peloton had breached speeds of over 100km/h on the descent before the crash. 

Race leader Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) was distanced from the peloton with 3km on the uphill rise to the finish.

The first attack came from Paul Double (Jayco AlUla) with 3km remaining, and was shortly countered by Christen, who opened up a significant advantage. Only Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step) was able to initially jump across to the Swiss rider. 

Christen launched a stinging attack just before the flamme rouge, which Garofoli was unable to follow. However, Afonso Eulálio’s attack from the bunch was able to close the gap to Christen, with Higuita, Voisard, and Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) able to follow. 

Higuita opened up the final sprint, but Voisard was able to match the Colombian stride for stride and find enough resources to get ahead just before the finish line to take the victory.

Afterwards, Voisard could barely hide his relief. “It’s great to start the season with a win,” he said in the flash interview. “I’ve had to wait a long time for this one, because I haven’t won since Hungary two years ago. So I’m really happy today.”

He said the headwind dictated his timing. “I knew that, with the headwind, I had to wait until the final kilometre,” the Swiss rider explained. “That’s when I went all in, I didn’t think about the guys behind me. I knew I could get back to the three riders up front, and after that I knew I could be pretty strong on a finish like this.”