Casper van Uden sets his professional record for the first time on the AlUla Tour

Only a few, very few, can boast of the privilege of having conquered two of the most prestigious monuments of cycling, such as Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. One of them is John Degenkolb. “He is like a father to us, we are very grateful to him,” he said Colleague at DSM-Firmenich Casper van Uden. A real reference for the young Dutchman (22 years old) who won it Triumph in the first stage of the AlUla Tour with a wonderful sprint against sprinters of his caliber Dylan Groenewegen (2.) and Tim Merlier (3.). There’s no better way to bring a professional record to market.

A completely flat circular route of 149 km with start and finish in Al Manshiya station, the legendary Hijaz railway, whose single track ran 1,300 kilometers between Damascus and Medina. This is what the first round of this AlUla tour offered, from which few had high expectations. “We have hardly any wind, we don’t think there will be any problems,” was the message among assistants from various teams in the minutes before the start. Shortly afterwards, the breakaway group was formed in the presence of Carter Bettles (Roojai), Masaki Yamamoto (JCL), the Spaniard Unai Zubeldia (Euskaltel) and the pride of the Saudi national team, Ali Al Shaikhahmed and Hassan Al Ibrahim. Tudor, Quick-Step and Jayco, who were most interested in making the sprint, placed several of their men in the relays to stabilize the breakaways’ lead at about three minutes. His success became a utopia.

At least, in Spanish terms, Zubeldia (he made his professional debut at the age of 20) received the honorary award for the most combative runner of the day, but the escape failed when he was missing 11.5 km away his last survivor, Bettles, took the white flag. Everything was in the hands of a tremendous sprint and here the doors were opened wide for Van Uden, who joins himself in the list of young people destined to dominate this aspect in the future. The favorites, for their part, saved the day without too many problems, including: Simon Yates, who was able to return to the peloton despite a puncture 18km left.

“I’m super happy. I tried to be at the front, even though there were a lot of fights with the other guys. We made a great move in the last three kilometers, it was a good job. The sprint went well enough. Last year I made some unnecessary mistakes and suffered some serious falls. But in winter The team showed me how much they believed in me because they knew what I could do. It’s super nice for them and for me,” summarized Van Uden at the end of the stage in front of the media, which included AS. It is clear that the Third place for this young man from the DSM development team at the last edition of the Milan-Turin It wasn’t a coincidence. Now fight with the big boys.

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