Nacer Bouhanni powered to victory on the fourth and penultimate stage of the Saudi Tour to claim the race overall lead.
The Arkea-Samsic rider had finished in the top five in each of the first three stages and grabbed a two-second advantage in the general classification from Niccolo Bonifazio.
It was Bouhanni’s first stage win since the sixth stage of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana.
“I needed this victory because otherwise you start to have doubts,” he said.
“Today, my teammates did an incredible job. By being led out this way, the only thing I could do was win. Now let’s defend the (overall leader’s) jersey.”
The inaugural edition of the race finishes with a 144km ride around Riyadh on Saturday.
Saudi Tour 2020 – stage 4 results (Wadi Namar Park – Al Mazuhimiya King Saugìd University):
| 1 | Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) | 3:21:55 |
| 2 | Niccolò Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 3 | Yevgeniy Gidich (Astana) | ,, |
| 4 | Damiano Cima (Gazprom-Rusvelo) | ,, |
| 5 | Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 6 | Adrien Garel (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) | ,, |
| 7 | Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 8 | Stephen Bassett (Rally Cycling) | ,, |
| 9 | Vladislav Kulikov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) | ,, |
| 10 | Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain McLaren) | ,, |
Saudi Tour 2020 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) | 14:34:49 |
| 2 | Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain McLaren) | +02” |
| 3 | Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) | +05” |
| 4 | Youcef Reguigui (Terengganu inc. TSG) | +14” |
| 5 | Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain McLaren) | +15” |
| 6 | Carlos Barbero (NTT0 | +16” |
| 7 | Sergei Chernetskii (Gazprom-Rusvelo) | +17” |
| 8 | Andreas Lorentz Kron (Riwal Readynez) | ,, |
| 9 | Geoffrey Soupe (Total Direct Energie) | +18” |
| 10 | Fabien Doubey (Circus-Wanty Gobert) | ,, |
