In the first stage, called 1A, and set from Jeddah to Ha'il, the riders and drivers faced a short prologue of just 19 kilometres. To get to the start of this special stage, the competitors had to cover 225 km and, at the end, another 600 km more to reach the bivouac.
Therefore, despite the brevity of the prologue stage, it was quite a tough day for all of them. All the team riders were able to complete the route. Bolivian Daniel Nosiglia finished 24th with a total time of 1:03:45. Joan Pedrero was 38th with a time of 1:08:30, while Chilean Patricio 'Pato Cabrera' finished 62nd and Marc Calmet 74th, with a time of 1:13:45 and 1:18:50 respectively.
The prologue results establishes the starting order for tomorrow's stage 1B, with the particularity that the first 15 riders in this category can choose their starting position. To avoid possible strategies and speculation, the total time of the prologue has been multiplied by five.
Daniel Nosiglia: "I'm very happy. It was very short today, only 19 kilometres, but there was a bit of all the terrain that we will find in Arabia: dunes, sand, roads and stones. Tomorrow the complicated part starts. Now it's time to rest and prepare everything for tomorrow".
Joan Pedrero: "The sand was quite tricky and I felt a bit insecure. I decided to ease off a bit because tomorrow we'll have more tracks and stones, a terrain where I feel better. I'll get the feeling day by day".
