A CRUSHING BLOW: COX DOWN IN THE PUMPS
After losing Harith Noah in stage 1 and Lorenzo Santolino in stage 2, Sherco were counting on their last man standing, Bradley Cox, to reach the finish in Yanbu —if possible, inside the top 5 to improve on the manufacturer's best performance to date, courtesy of "Santo", sixth in Jeddah in 2021. The South African woke up in eighth place, less than an hour from fifth. However, a failing water bump stopped the progression of Alfie's son with 91 km to go. It took him almost two hours to fix the problem, relegating him to thirteenth overall, 3 h 08′51″ from the lead. His new mission is simply to avoid wrecking his blue mount before the finish in Yanbu. A stage win echoing Santolino's triumph in stage 3 last year would be a nice bonus.
