British cycling star Simon Yates has had his first win of the season in a welcome boost for the Australian-based Jayco AlUla team.
Yates won the fifth and final stage of the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia, which gave him the overall title by three seconds, ahead of New Zealander Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates).
Winning the stage gave Yates a 10-second time bonus and that gave him the overall win, after Fisher-Black had started the final stage in front on the general classification.
The Tour ended with the 150.2km Queen Stage from AlUla Old Town to the summit finish at Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid.
Yates, the 2018 Vuelta a Espana winner, attacked on the final climb and then took out a four-rider sprint at the finish.
Belgian William Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step) finished second, which also gave him second overall, with Fisher-Black dropping to third.
There was plenty of pressure on the Australian team to have a big result at the Saudi race, given AlUla is one of their key sponsors.
They suffered crashes during the Tour, and their sprinter Dylan Groenewegen was unwell.
They also had a tough few weeks in Australia, with no wins at the Tour Down Under or the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, after dominating the national road championships.
"It’s a very important race for us,'' Yates said.
"Like I’ve been saying all week, we come here for AlUla now, a big partner of ours, so it’s fantastic we can pull this off, and I'm super happy to take the win here."
