Rafal Majka and Juan Sebastián Molano spearhead UAE Team Emirates - XRG's lineup for AlUla Tour

UAE Team Emirates - XRG will be almost on their home soil during the AlUla Tour. The Saudi race traditionally attracts a stacked startlist at the start of the year and 2025 is no different in that aspect with the likes of Tom Pidcock, Tim Merlier or Fabio Jakobsen expected to start in the Middle East country.

For the AlUla Tour, the team will look to the leadership of Rafal Majka, who will captain the squad, while sprinter Sebastian Molano will target the sprint stages, supported by trusted leadout man Ivo Oliveira and strong all-rounder Mikkel Bjerg. Three youngsters from the UAE Team Gen Z, including Junior European Champion from 2023 - Anze Ravbar, will complete the lineup in Saudi Arabia.

"I’m excited to be starting 2025 at AlUla Tour, where I’ll be focusing mainly on the sprint stages," says Molano in press release. "It’s been a good winter of training and preparation and the sensations and motivation are positive. There are some tricky stages here but I hope to have a few sprinting opportunities also with the support of a rider of the quality of Ivo who is a leadout expert. We also have Rafal Majka here who will be aiming for the general classification, so it’s a very complete team."

In total three sprint opportunities are expected on stages 1, 3 and 5, unless crosswinds blow up the race and create a chaos. For the first of the even-numbered stages, the organisers prepared a brutal circuit up the steep Bir Jaydah Mountain (2.8 km at 9.4% with slopes that go above 12%) the riders will have to crawl up three times. Compared to that, the traditional wall in Harrat Uwayrid (2.9 km at 12%) which will be raced only once will be almost a formality.