Colomé and Kortekaas, first leaders

The NEOM Titan Desert Saudi Arabia brings together 250 cyclists. 250 adventurers. 250 stories, each one of them with nuances that make it unique: stories of overcoming, sports or life that each Titan carries with it.

Oriol Colomé is the story of a Titan Legend Platinum, with 16 participations in Titan World Series and over 8,200 kilometers ridden between Morocco, Almeria and Saudi Arabia. Tonight, for the first time, he will sleep wearing the leader’s red jersey.

The first stage of the edition had two very different parts that made the most of the Saudi desert’s contrast. The first one crossed mountains of small rocksm, hard to cycle on. Up to the halfway point, six riders were in the lead: Luis León Sánchez, Haimar Zubeldia, Julen Zubero, Jorge Lamiel, Álvaro Galindo and Colomé himself.

In the second half, which ran through canyons and on soft tracks, two riders held the pace of the eventual stage winner: Zubeldia and Lamiel. Particularly praiseworthy was the pace of the Victoria Factory team rider, who lost a minute on a sandbank and had to grit his teeth to recover.

Finally, these three riders disputed the sprint and it was the cyclist from Barcelona, a veteran of the Titan World Series, who won the stage. The second victory for Colomé after the other one he achieved in the Škoda Titan Desert Morocco.

Same time for the leader and his two pursuers. Among them a Haimar Zubeldia who already knows what a second place in the NEOM Titan Desert Saudi Arabia is and who will fight to improve the position he achieved last year.

In the women’s GC there have been fewer surprises. That woman who has forever changed the face of the Titan Desert, Tessa Kortekaas, has spared no mercy and is from day one the leader of the race.

This is the only Titan World Series race that the Dutchwoman has not won and she does not want to leave things to chance. Today, the Cannondale ISB Sport rider crossed the finish line as the first woman and the 13th in the overall GC. Almost a minute ahead of a former WorldTour professional like her countryman Koen de Kort.

Thus, Kortekaas sends a clear message to her rivals and is already 22 minutes ahead of her immediate pursuers: Pilar Fernández and Titan Desert rookie Sophie Wright, both of whom fought for second place in a tight sprint and seem to be the only ones who can challenge the overwhelming dominance of the four-time Titan World Series champion.