The Portuguese rider timed his sprint perfectly to take victory over his 3 companions after scaling the tough Harrat Uwayrid climb on the 4th Stage of the 2023 Saudi Tour. As the peloton weaved around on the steep gradients, Guerreiro, Großschartner, Formolo and Buitrago went clear over a chasing group led by Movistar and Cofidis. They managed the gap, largely thanks to the pair of UAE riders but when it came to the finale, Guerreiro worked the smartest and was able to raise his arms in the air. Formolo attacked first, Buitrago got onto the wheel before coming over him only to be back together with just 500 metres to go. Buitrago kicked again but Guerreiro was the rider with the most in the legs.
Tomorrow’s stage looks likely to be a sprint so it feels like Guerreiro will take the GC pending any issues. Guerreiro is now 8 seconds ahead of Davide Formolo and 9 seconds ahead of Santiago Buitrago. One of this week’s fastest finishers Jonathan Milan is 24 seconds back in 5th place. It’s a great start to the year for the new Movistar signing, who joined the Spanish team from EF Education-EasyPost this off-season.
“Today was really hard, really tough. Me and my team-mates did the climb in training but we didn’t know how the legs would be after a stage of wind and stress.
This is my first time at this race and I think the secret is to wait, wait, wait. You need to wait during the week, in this stage and also in the climb. I had good legs but you can’t go first. I didn’t think about the jersey I was super focused on crossing the line first. I think we have a good team and we’ll be really focused for tomorrow.”
Ruben Guerreiro
Saudi Tour 2023 Stage 4 results
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