Multiple Grand Tour stage winners Eddie Dunbar and Dylan Groenewegen will headline a stacked Team Jayco AlUla squad ready to do battle on all fronts at the AlUla Tour.
The Australian outfit will line-up with a powerful sprint train in aid of their fast-finishing Dutchman, while Irishman Dunbar will aim for overall glory in the Saudi Arabian desert.
2024 mountain bike world champion Alan Hatherly will make his exciting road race debut for the team, with the South African set to play an important team role over the course of the five-stage race.
Groenewegen will have the support of a strong sprint setup in the shape of fellow countryman Elmar Reinders, the experienced Luka Mezgec and the towering Max Walscheid.
Austrian Patrick Gamper will also make his debut in GreenEDGE colours, and the 27-year-old will have a vital job in aiding both the sprint train and teammate Dunbar on the crucial general classification days.
Team Jayco AlUla:
Eddie Dunbar (IRL)
Patrick Gamper (AUT)
Dylan Groenewegen (NED)
Alan Hatherly (RSA)
Luka Mezgec (SLO)
Elmar Reinders (NED)
Max Walscheid (GER)
Eddie Dunbar:
“I’m looking forward to the whole experience of racing the AlUla Tour. There’s a good few guys on the team who have been for last few years and from chatting to them, it’s sounds like a really good trip and it’s a good race as well, so I’m really looking forward to it looking forward to it.
It’s a cool place to go racing, in the desert, it’s definitely an experience and obviously I’ve never been to Saudi Arabia either, so it’s going to be nice to experience a new country as well. Obviously AlUla is one of our main sponsors and that’s where we race, so it’s going to be cool to have a look around there as well.
There’s a new GC day this year, so I’m happy about that and I’ve been training well so hopefully I can go there and put in a good performance and see what happens. From the guys who have raced it, they all say the climb on stage four is a horrible climb and it’s incredibly steep, it’s short, but very steep. But as I said, stage two is a tough stage as well, it’s a new stage this year so I’m really looking forward to that day.”
Andrew Smith (Sport Director):
“With Dylan we will be aiming for more stages wins and he has three opportunities that should be for him. The GC guys have two opportunities, and we’ve got Eddie who’s our GC goal. We bring in Alan Hatherly for his first race with the team, he knows that road racing is very different to mountain biking, but it’s a really good opportunity for him to get into supporting someone like Eddie and learning from him.
I think the new stage on day two opens up the race quite a lot. We’ve got three laps with a climb of 2.9km at 9.2%, and then you’ve got bonuses on the penultimate time up there, so I think that really makes the race interesting and as we saw last year, bonus seconds really play role.”
2025 Alula Tour – Race Details
Tue 28th Jan – Sat 1st Feb (5 Stages)
