Soudal - Quick-Step's European champion Tim Merlier has the sprint win on the opening stage of the 2024 AlUla Tour in a bunch finale at the Al Manshiyah Train Station, opening his 2025 season in style.
Heading into the final 30km, just four men remained from the day's break. The most notable of the attackers was Alexandre Vinokurov of the XDS Astana Development Team, son of former Olympic gold medal winning boss of the Astana team. The break's hopes of holding off the peloton were almost non existent though, already within 30 seconds of being caught. Around 10km later, the break's day on the attack was officially over, and all attentions in the peloton were turned towards preparing for the imminent bunch sprint.
With a number of top sprinters present, but nearly all having their first race day of the season, it was quite hard to predict who would have good legs in the final sprint. At around 5km to go, Arvid De Kleijn and Alexander Kristoff's hopes were sadly over in a nasty crash that also brought UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader Rafal Majka down to the deck. In the sprint for the line, Tim Merlier opened things up and managed to hold off the late charge of Juan Sebastian Molano and Maikel Zijlaard to secure the victory.
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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