Things did not go entirely smoothly during the transfer that was supposed to bring the entire caravan of the AlUla Tour from Paris to Saudi Arabia. The charter plane prepared by the organization, carrying riders, team staff, photographers, journalists, and workers, landed several hours later than the expected late afternoon arrival, an unforeseen inconvenience that led everyone to collect their luggage at midnight and reach their respective hotels in the dead of night.

Everything was going smoothly until, upon reaching the airspace of AlUla, it was communicated that due to the presence of some VIPs (among whom, presumably, also the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, visiting the area today) in the airport space, the flight would land in Medina, 345 kilometers further south and almost 4 hours by car from the original destination.

Once arrived there, however, due to the impossibility of disembarking without permission in a sacred place like the Saudi city, the plane waited two hours with all personnel on board before receiving the go-ahead, after refueling, to resume the route to the AlUla airport.

The inevitable result of these changes to the air route was a delay of over 5 hours that everyone, athletes first and foremost, will have to quickly recover from before the inaugural stage scheduled for Tuesday, January 28.