On the gruelling ascent to the Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid which reached as much as a 22% gradient, Van Gils followed Bagioli’s attack to latch onto the Italian’s wheel and eventually crack him under pressure to ride away for stage glory.
Luka Mezgec (BikeExchange-Jayco) beat out Tim Declerq (QuickStep Alpha Vinyl) in the sprint for second place a full 40 seconds back from Van Gils, who now holds a 36-second advantage atop the general classification over Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) with Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) a further 12 seconds back in third overall.
Rampant crosswinds formed huge early splits in the peloton as a group of 18 riders including Van Gils and a well-supported Bagioli took the front with the Bahrain-led chase group trying and failing all day to bring them back.
By the time they had caught up on the climb, it was already too late for a tired Buitrago to capitalise, the eventual winner already far up the steep roads on his way to victory.
With the lead group thinning as the gradient reached double digits, Bagioli attacked with 10 kilometres to go, seemingly cracking everyone before Van Gils found enough in the legs to follow.
The two began a tense duel as the road snaked onwards and upwards and the Belgian gradually inched ahead of the Italian, who appeared to finally be tiring with a lot of racing left.
It all became too much for Bagioli as he succumbed to Van Gils’ pressure before cresting the climb, as the dark horse for Lotto Soudal powered through the final flat five kilometres to take a memorable stage win for his budding career.
Van Gils’ victory makes it two wins for Lotto Soudal at the Saudi Tour after Aussie Caleb Ewan’s triumph in Stage 1, and the team will surely be doing all they can to ensure they protect the general classification and Ewan’s lead in the points classification in tomorrow’s final Stage 5.
The Saudi Tour concludes with Stage 5, a flat 138.9 kilometre ride through AlUla Old Town which looks ripe for another victory for a sprinter - Caleb Ewan, perhaps? Tune in from 2300 AEDT on SBS On Demand for all the action.
