| SANTIAGO BUITRAGO WINS STAGE 2 OF SAUDI TOUR |
Santiago Buitrago escaped the peloton on the only climb of the stage with 800 meters to go. Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) was the first to launch an attack, which Santiago followed, and Bagiolli (Quick-Step) went after them. Buitrago passed Oss, but Bagiolli looked very strong and made ground on Buitrago. Buitrago showed his sprinting prowess and crossed the finish a bike length clear of Bagiolli
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| The second stage of the Saudi Tour featured a 164 kilometer ride starting from Taibah University just south of Al Ula and finished at the plateau above Abu Rakah. |
| The race started similar to Stage 1, with three riders escaping the peloton, holding a four-minute advantage throughout the stage. The peloton didn’t lose control of them and brought them back with 15km to spare and were intact at the bottom of the final climb. |
This is the first professional victory for Santiago Buitrago: “I’m really happy to win the stage today. It’s amazing. The team did great work for me the whole stage. The team did an incredible job for me today, to prevent any echelons. We had quite a lot of wind.
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When it was 1 km to go, I saw that I had good legs. We were only three guys fighting at the final. It was very tricky, and I didn’t think that I would have a lot of opportunities to win in the sprint, so I decided to try earlier. I wanted to show my gratitude to the whole team for the job done, all the riders and staff. This is the first victory in my career and the first one in the season for the team. This is
incredible. Thanks to the team for trusting me. It’s not the last one for sure.” |
| DS Franco Pellizotti: “I’m super happy for the first victory of the season, and also very happy that young Santiago Buitrago won. When I saw Bagiolli coming back to Santiago, at first I was scared as I know Bagiolli is fast, but Santiago was very strong in the finish, and I’m so happy for him and the whole team. Also, I’m really happy how the whole team worked really well for Santiago today.” |
| Santiago Buitrago is now the overall leader of the race and will wear the leader’s green jersey tomorrow. |
| (All pictures can be used for editorial and non-commercial usages only and are copyright @Sprintcycling @TeamBahrainVictorious) |
