Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling) won an exhausting scrap for victory on stage 3 of the AlUla Tour, pipping Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) and Sergio Higuita (XDS Astana Team) to the line after a gruelling uphill sprint to Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah.
Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) looked to have the stage win sewn up after launching a crafty early attack and dropping Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep) to go solo in the final 1.2 kilometres.
But Eulálio toiled away with another UAE rider, Igor Arrieta, in his wheel just as the final barriers arrived. There were more riders who had saved their efforts on the final climb, however, with Voisard and Higuita making it a five-man fight in the final run for home.
With everyone faltering, Higuita hit the front and he was the next to look set for victory. But Voisard had timed his effort just right, swinging out of his wheel and beating him to the line, with Eulálio also running out of steam.
Pre-stage race leader Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) was dropped with 3.4km to go, with the 10 bonus seconds gained through the win placing Voisard into the lead of the race with two stages left to race. He leads the race from Eulálio by four seconds, with six seconds over Higuita.
