saudi tour 2023 stage 3

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Soren Waerenskjold wins Stage 3 at Saudi Tour after edging Jonathan Milan in sprint

Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X) edged Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) to win Stage 3 at the Saudi Tour. Milan tried to repeat his same recipe from Stage 2, when he went long to see off Dylan Groenewegen, but he was overhauled by Waerenskjold before the line in a tight sprint battle. Stream the 2023 cycling season live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk.

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• Stage 3. Al Ula - Abu Rakah

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6th edition 159.2 km, 1 February 2023

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Start, finish: Stage 3. Al Ula - Abu Rakah

Distance: 159.2 km

Date: 1 February 2023

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Saudi Tour 2023 Stage 3

photo credits @ Saudi Tour 

Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) claimed the first victory of his professional career, after Norwegian rider won stage 3 of the Saudi Tour with a powerful sprint finish along the punchy finale in Abu Rakah.

The final 2 kilometers features a series of short steep ramps, which proved too difficult for the purest of sprinters like Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), who was forced to relinquish the overall leader’s jersey after a disappointing 52nd finish.

Race Highlights

Despite the presence of a prevailing crosswind, the 159 kilometer stage that started in Al Manshiyah saw nearly a full peloton remain intact until the final few uphill kilometers.

After an initial false flat, the road kicked up with two kilometers to go, with Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) launching a speculative attack, which was quickly marked by a counter-attack by Zdenek Stybar (Jayco-AlUla), who briefly went solo before being reined in by last year’s winner Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious).

From there, the duo stayed together into the final kilometer before they were caught by a group of about 30 chasers.  

Uno-X formed a two-man lead-out for Wærenskjold but Milan looked to repeat his trick from 24 hours previously with another ambitious long-range sprint.

Wærenskjold hit out and set about dragging Milan back, drawing level with 50 meters to go on the false flat finish before moving clear to celebrate a breakthrough moment.

“I knew when the guys went really hard on the bottom of the climb I couldn’t follow. So I surfed a bit on the peloton to save myself for a sprint,” Wærenskjold said.

“We did it perfectly. Today we took the right-hand side [of the road]. Finally we got the wind from the left so we got less wind compared to yesterday when we did really bad at the end. We learned from that and today we did it.”

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Saudi Tour 2023

All you need to know about the Saudi Tour, with race results, rider updates and general information

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Where : Saudi Arabia

When : 30 January - 3 February 2023

Distance : 830km

Rank : Asia Tour

The Saudi Tour is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's foray into hosting a professional bike race, following the likes of the UAE and Oman. This is its third edition, and the second that is centred around AlUla, which is close to UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“The general desire is to highlight all the sites of the AlUla region designated by UNESCO," route director Jean-Marc Marino said.

Phil Bahaus (Bahrain-Victorious) won the opening edition in 2020, before Lotto-Soudal's Maxim van Gils won last year. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) won sprints on the way to Van Gils' overall win. 

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Saudi Tour route

Stage one is a largely flat affair, from AlUla International Airport to Khaybar. The 180.5km stage is set up to finish in a sprint, with two intermediate sprints and a bonus second sprint en-route to the finish.

Stage two, north of AlUla, heads from the Winter PArk to Shalal Sijlyat Rocks; at 184km long, this again is one for the fast men,

Stage three will offer the puncheurs something to race for, as they ride from Al Manshiyah Train Station to Abu Rakah. The new course features a 1.5km slope at an average of 8.5% followed by a flat kilometer to finish, different to the similar finish where Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) won last year.

The penultimate day, stage four, will again be a punchy finish, as the riders race 163.4km from Maraya to Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid. The final consists of a 2.8km long ascent at 12% with a section at 22% preceding the final 7km, on a plateau offering a lunar landscape.

Stage five, from AlUla Old Town to Maraya features gravel, a first for the Saudi Tour, through the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra. The 7.5km long section could prove decisive. 

Stage details

Stage 1: AlUla International Airport - Khaybar (180.5km)

Stage 2: Winter Park – Shalal Sijlyat Rocks, (184 km)

Stage 3:Al Manshiyah Train Station - Abu Rakah (159.2 km)

Stage 4: Maraya - Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid (163.4km)

Stage 5: AlUla Old Town - Maraya (142.9 km)

Recent winners

2020: Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-McLaren)

2022: Maxim van Gils (Lotto-Soudal)

Watch the Saudi Tour

It is expected Eurosport and GCN Race Pass will broadcast the 2023 Saudi Tour.

You'll find the TV guide here when details become available.

Official race links

Saudi Tour official website

Saudi Tour official Twitter feed

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Adam is Cycling Weekly ’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling on tarmac, he's happy. Before joining Cycling Weekly he spent two years writing for Procycling, where he interviewed riders and wrote about racing. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds. Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to cycling.

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Profiles & Route Saudi Tour 2023

Throughout five days the peloton will race in Saudi Arabia, for the Saudi Tour . It is the beginning of a long stint of racing in the Middle East from the 30th of January and the 3rd of February.

The race will feature five stages. Stage 4 will be the queen stage and the day where the climbers and puncheurs have to launch their main bids for the GC. All other stages are expected to end in a sprint, although stages 3 and 5 have hilltop finishes which could prove challenging and feature a wide variety of riders within a shot of victory. Of course, the wind may always play a part aswell and the race can be decided in each day.

PREVIEW | Saudi Tour 2023 - Middle East receives sprinter-filled peloton for windy and explosive week of racing

The opening stage of the race will start in AlUla, a name now well known within pro cycling as they are the new title sponsor of Australian Team Jayco AlUla. It's a flat stage that is close to a complete straight line, set to finish in Khayber.

PREVIEW | Saudi Tour 2023 stage 1 - Groenewegen and Ackermann headline opening day for the sprinters

Stage two has a slightly hillier start with some bonus seconds available at the top of an early hilltop. Most of the stage however is pan-flat, with the Shalal Siljyat Rocks spot set to host the finale in what should be a bunch sprint.

PREVIEW | Saudi Tour 2023 stage 2 - Dylan Groenewegen looks to net second sprint win on flat finish

Stage three has a open finale, but most of the day is flat. Even though the profile hints at a lot of climbing, no tough gradients will be found at any time, and it's at the finish where the hurt may be put to the sprinters. A sprint is expected, however a 700 meter ramp at 7% ends already inside the final kilometer, the puncheurs and GC riders will have an opportunity to take time on the competition.

PREVIEW | Saudi Tour 2023 stage 3 - Hilly finish will see puncheurs and GC riders battle against sprinters

The queen stage. Stage 4 is a pan-flat day except for the finale, which will take place in the Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid. The final 10 kilometers are flat but they come after a 7.5 kilometer climb at 5.9%. However, the final 2.9 kilometers of the ascent average 12% and will be able to see big differences created, likely where the overall classification will be decided aswell.

PREVIEW | Saudi Tour 2023 stage 4 - Buitrago vs Guerreiro vs Grossschartner on queen stage with 11% climb

The final day into Maraya will be an interesting one, with only 142 kilometers in the menu but including a 7.3-kilometer long gravel sector. Most of the stage is flat, but the finale will see a slight uphill drag to the line.

PREVIEW | Saudi Tour 2023 stage 5 - Gravel and uphill finish to wrap off explosive race

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Saudi Tour 2023: Schedule, Stages, Course, Live Stream

The 3 rd edition of Saudi Tour is announced to return this Monday in Al-Ula. Here you can find latest details related to the schedule, venue, and streaming info of the upcoming Saudi Tour 2023 cycling event.

The Tour of Saudi Arabia is currently titled “Saudi Tour”. It is an annual professional road-bicycle racing event held under the authorization of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The event is a part of the UCI Continental Circuit’s Asian Tour series.

While The Saudi Arabia-based tour was initially staged in 1999, it became a regular part of the UCI Asia Tour in 2020. The upcoming 2023 Tour of Saudi Arabia will be the 3 rd official iteration of the event. This year’s event is being promoted by the Amaury Sport Organization.

There will be five different stages in this year’s Saudi Tour. A total of 16 professional road cycling teams will participate in the event. The participating teams contain 7 professional participants in each.

When will be Saudi Tour 2023 be held?

• Start Date: Monday, January 30, 2023
• Time: 06:30 a.m. ET

The latest iteration of the Tour of Saudi Arabia is scheduled to begin this Monday, January 30, 2023. The first stage will commence at 06:30 a.m. ET on the first day and end around 08:30 a.m. ET.

Saudi Tour 2023 Schedule:

Where will the event be held.

• Location: Saudi Arabia

The upcoming Tour of Saudi Arabia 2023 is planned to be held in 5 different stages over 5 days. The stages and their description are listed below –

How to watch the Saudi Tour 2023 on TV?

The official organizers of the Saudi Tour 2023 have announced multiple broadcast partnerships with media channels in various countries to provide fans with live tv broadcasts of the upcoming cycling event. These are listed below –

• SBS – Australia
• FloBikers – Canada
• L’Equipe – France
• JSports – Japan
• NBCUni – USA
• Sports Channel Network – UK

How to Live Stream the event?

The definitive online cycling streaming platform, Global Cycling Network or GCN will provide live stream of all the stages from the upcoming Saudi Tour 2023 event. With a GCN+ subscription, live streams of the event can be accessed from any international location.

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Saudi Arabia's futuristic $500 billion Neom megacity just got a lot smaller... for now, report says

• Saudi Arabia has cut estimates for people living in its $500 billion Neom project.
• Its government hoped the futuristic "The Line" city would hold 1.5 million by 2030.
• Now, fewer than 300,000 are expected to live there by then, officials said, per Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabia has cut estimates for the number of people living in its Neom megacity project by 2030.

Its government had previously said it wanted 1.5 million residents to be moved into the project's futuristic city, "The Line," by then, Bloomberg reported.

But that number is now likely to be fewer than 300,000, the Bloomberg report said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Billed as a "cognitive city," The Line is set to stretch over 170 kilometers (roughly 105 miles) of desert to the Red Sea in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

But just 2.4 kilometers (around 1.5 miles) of that is expected to be completed by 2030, the person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The $500 billion Neom megacity, which will cover 26,500 square kilometers (just over 10,200 square miles), is part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil and pivot toward tech and innovation.

It is set to feature glow-in-the-dark beaches, ski slopes, an artificial moon, robot butlers, and flying taxis, according to glossy brochures and public statements by its planners .

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But human rights activists have raised fears that the grandiose plans reflect not just Crown Prince Mohammed's ambition but his refusal to tolerate challenges to his power.

Experts told Business Insider in 2023 that the city could be fitted with Chinese technology to gather data on residents as part of a sweeping surveillance program. Others raised concern about the harsh punishments meted out to Saudi critics of the project, with Business Insider reporting last year that a woman was jailed for 30 years for criticizing the plans on social media.

Neom is just one of several "gigaprojects" underway as part of this plan.

The country's Public Investment Fund (PIF), its sovereign wealth fund, has long shouldered the large financial burden imposed by such projects — which are estimated to run at tens of billions of dollars each.

But the PIF said in January that its cash as of September had dropped to the lowest level since December 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported.

And that has forced the government to turn to a tactic it hasn't used for a long time to boost its funds — borrowing, per the report. It has also been reported that the kingdom plans to sell more shares in the state oil company Saudi Aramco this year.

The Saudi ruler has used a range of tactics to rebuild his global influence and reshape Saudi Arabia since the 2018 murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, which almost resulted in him being made a pariah on the world stage.

Alongside economic megaprojects, Saudi Arabia has also thrown money into other areas, such as sports.

The Guardian estimated in July 2023 that the kingdom had spent at least $6.3 billion on sports deals since 2021, from funding a giant merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to prying a host of global soccer stars away from European leagues on huge salaries.

"It's mind-boggling the amount of stuff that's trying to be done here," Tim Callen, a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute think tank, told The Journal.

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Ruben Guerreiro survives gravel roads to win Saudi Tour

Consonni takes final sprint as Groenewegen goes too early

Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) wrapped up the overall title at the Saudi Tour , as Simone Consonni ( Cofidis) won the final stage after overhauling Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) on a long and rising sprint finish in Maraya.

Groenewegen bumped shoulders with a couple of Jonathan Milan's Bahrain Victorious teammates as the final kilometre became chaotic, forcing him to make an effort in the wind. Despite ending up with a lead-out from Luka Mezgec, he then hit out with 300 metres to go on a slight incline. The Dutch sprinter powered out front but soon faded, with Consonni moving briefly into his slipstream and out into the lead as Groenewegen dropped like a stone.

Matteo Malucelli (Bingoal-WB) came up with a powerful sprint to take second place just behind Consonni, with Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) piping Groenewegen for the final podium spot.

"I started at 300 metres and it felt like three kilometres. In the last 50 metres I was thinking about the team pursuit and I was wanting to push until the end. This win is really important for me and the team," Consonni said after celebrating with his Cofidis teammates.

Stage 4 winner Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) sewed up the overall title - his first stage race success - after safely finishing in the peloton on a day that presented the danger of a long gravel sector in the final 30km.

"I'm really happy. It was kind of an easy day, the wind gave us the chance to relax,” Guerreiro explained. 

“The gravel was nice, some attacks for entertainment, and some emotion to the end. The final kilometre was tricky and technical but we managed to be up front and safe."

The same gravel section caused crashes and a number of safety-related complaints last year but this time appeared to pass without any major incident, despite tension in the bunch and a high racing speed. 

From there, it was a fairly calm run-in, although the peloton left it late to catch the day's breakaway, with last survivor Kamil Malecki (Q36.5) hanging on until the final two kilometres.

Uno-X were prominent at first but then fell away, while Team DSM and Human Powered Health also had spells on the front that came to nothing. 

Jayco-AlUla had strong numbers and came out on top in the jostle for position against Bahrain Victorious but Groenewegen went too early, with the gradient against him anyway, leaving Consonni - more accustomed to lead-out duties as well as track cycling - to collect the third victory of his career.

Guerreiro crossed the line in 16th place before his trip to the podium, with no changes at the top of the general classification to leave Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) on the lower steps at eight and nine seconds respectively. 

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Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.

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UEFA Champions League draw pots: 2023-24 group stage participants and seeding, live stream, how to watch

Group stage play begins sept. 19 but first comes the draw on thursday.

The participants in this season's Champions League are set, and so are the pots for the Aug. 31 draw. The field is stacked with regional heavyweights, including reigning Champions League winners Manchester City and Europa League champions Sevilla. Joining them in pot 1 are Bayern Munich plus new signing Harry Kane and Paris Saint-Germain minus Lionel Messi and Neymar, the latter having  left for Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal this summer. Manchester United , Arsenal, and Newcastle United make up the rest of the English contingent in this year's field.

A handful of Americans are also slated to compete in the Champions League this year, including new AC Milan duo Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah and Union Berlin's Brenden Aaronson .

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Here's a breakdown of the pots ahead of the Aug. 31 draw. Pot 1 is reserved for reigning champions Manchester City and last season's Europa League champion Sevilla, as well as the title winners of the six highest-ranked leagues per UEFA's association coefficient. Since City were also the English champions, Dutch title winners Feyenoord earned a spot in Pot 1.

The pots will be completed this week with the UEFA Champions League qualifying playoffs wrapping up. Here's what to know:

Playoff second legs

All matches will air on  Paramount+  with kickoff set for 3 p.m. ET. 

Tuesday Young Boys  3,  Maccabi Haifa  0 (Young Boys advance on aggregate, 3-0) Sporting Braga 1, Panathinaikos 0 (Braga advance on aggregate, 3-1) Galatasaray  2, Molde 1 (Galatasaray advance on aggregate, 5-3)

Wednesday PSV 5, Rangers 1 (PSV advance on aggregate, 7-3)  Copenhagen 1,  Rakow Czestochowa  1 (Copenhagen advance on aggregate, 2-1) AEK Athens  1, Antwerp 2 (Antwerp advance on aggregate, 3-1)

The teams that advanced are sorted into pots based on their UEFA club coefficient.

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Pots so far

Pot 1: Manchester City, Sevilla, FC Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica , Feyenoord

Pot 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig, Porto , Arsenal

Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk , Red Bull Salzburg , AC Milan, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, Braga, Copenhagen

Pot 4: Newcastle United, Union Berlin, Lens, Real Sociedad, Celtic, Galatasaray, Young Boys, Antwerp

Group stage matchdays

• Matchday 1:  Sept. 19-20
• Matchday 2:  Oct. 3-4
• Matchday 3:  Oct. 34-25
• Matchday 4:  Nov. 7-8
• Matchday 5:  Nov. 28-29
• Matchday 6:  Dec. 12-13

How to watch

• Date : Thursday, Aug. 31 |  Time : 12 p.m. ET
• Location : Grimaldi Forum -- Monaco
• Live stream:  Paramount+

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SRH won by 25 runs

Match drawn

Nepal won by 8 wickets (with 34 balls remaining)

Qatar won by 4 wickets (with 4 balls remaining)

Oman won by 9 wickets (with 14 balls remaining)

Kuwait won by 26 runs

Kolkata Knight Riders

Rajasthan Royals

Match yet to begin

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates Women

Netherlands Women

Scotland Women

United States of America Women

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Hayley Matthews - Leading T20 Cricketer in 2023

Eight consecutive T20I match awards herald the Matthews Supremacy

Hayley Matthews was in prolific form for West Indies' T20I side  •  Getty Images

Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick