🎥 Majka, Kristoff and De Kleijn suffer nasty crashes in opening stage of AlUla Tour

Tudor Pro Cycling Team entered the AlUla Tour with high hopes for sprinter Arvid de Kleijn, but their plans literally hit the pavement in the first stage, about four kilometers from the finish. Maikel Zijlaard salvaged the situation — or even exceeded expectations — by clinching an impressive third place. Both riders spoke with IDLProCycling.com afterward about their feelings and the aftermath of the first stage in Saudi Arabia.

The stage, set around the historic Al Manshiyah station in AlUla, was tailor-made for the numerous sprinters present, as was evident from the start. A classic scenario unfolded, with a relatively weak breakaway and controlled efforts by teams like Picnic PostNL (Fabio Jakobsen), Jayco AlUla (Dylan Groenewegen), Soudal Quick-Step — home to eventual winner Tim Merlier — and Tudor, working for De Kleijn.

Just over four kilometers from the finish, the motorbike camera showed images of De Kleijn on the ground. The Dutchman had crashed along with Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X), Rafal Majka (UAE-Emirates XRG), and Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal Quick-Step). However, the footage didn’t reveal what triggered the incident. "It was Domino Day," third-place finisher Zijlaard explained afterward.

De Kleijn himself elaborated further. "Just before the final hairpin turn, we got a bit overruled and lost each other. After the turn, when things picked up, I knew I needed to stay calm. Through my earpiece, I heard we needed to move to the right because Sebastian (Kolze Changizi, ed.) was behind me. That’s what I intended to do, but at that moment, the crash happened on the left in front of me. Someone went down directly ahead of me, and I couldn't get around it."

Read more below the video!

Zijlaard salvages Tudor’s race as the team remains motivated for the AlUla Tour

"I ended up on the ground, but I’m okay," De Kleijn said after briefly assessing his injuries. "My calf hurts a bit, and my elbow took a hit, but it’s not too bad. This is just part of it, so we’ll go for it again in the next opportunity," the sprinter for Fabian Cancellara’s team concluded.

Up front, De Kleijn’s teammates heard their leader had crashed. The responsibility then fell on Zijlaard to deliver a result, which he achieved with an impressive third place. "I heard Arvid had gone down, but I didn’t know much else. Finishing third is nice, of course, but I think we could have won with Arvid here," the strong all-rounder said humbly.

De Kleijn had high praise for his reliable lead-out man. "Maikel is strong. We already knew that before coming here. It probably says something about the form we’re in," the sprinter added, as he looks forward to another opportunity in Thursday’s stage.

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