'It's UAE's to lose' – What the GC favourites expect on Jebel Hafeet with UAE Tour Women overall win up for grabs

For many onlookers, the UAE Tour Women is a precession of sandy sprint stages won by Lorena Wiebes with increasing and alarming regularity. While that might be the case, the inclusion of the mountain stage to Jebel Hafeet provides the first mountain test of the season, and for that it is fascinating.

The race is only in its fourth edition and Elisa Longo Borghini is the one woman present who has won on the mountain before, first in 2023, when riding for Lidl-Trek, then last year with her current team, UAE Team ADQ.

As the race is the team's home race, the pressure is on to take victory and Longo Borghini will be all but expected to succeed on Sunday. Ask any of her rivals and they will tell you the Italian champion is favourite, and you don't need to have been in the peloton to see she is strong, just the TV coverage proves that.

Longo Borghini herself is more circumspect. At the pre-race press conference she claimed not to be in the condition she was last year and said as much to Cyclingnews when asked while warming down after stage 3, when she seemed to be in more a pre-stage mentality than otherwise.

"I did a good preparation, surely not peaking for this race like I was last year, because last year I was clearly asked to win this race," she said.

"If they say that I'm the strongest, I take it as a compliment. I saw a very strong Niewiadoma, I think Le Court is in a good shape and I don't know about Van der Breggen and the other contenders."

Jebel Hafeet lies in the south of the Abu Dhabi Emirate on the edge of the mountains separating it from Oman. Covering 10.8km at an average gradient of 6.6%, it's not the hardest climb the peloton will tackle this season and, at 1,025m above sea level it's certainly not the highest. However, a large chunk of the middle section averages 8% and there are ramps of 11%, add in temperatures approaching 30ºC and a 20kph wind and it becomes a stiff challenge.

That's not to mention the preceding 145km which winds its way from the start at Al Ain and could be affected by cross winds, something Lidl-Trek's climber, Niamh Fisher-Black is concerned about.

"The first part of the race is what makes me most nervous, when you get to the bottom of the climb it's a process we all know how to do, that part I'm not so nervous about, but the rest…" Fisher-Black is one of the 50 debutants in this year's race and hasn't ridden the climb before. "I've heard that it's a really deceiving climb because it's open and a big road, but it's steep, so I can imagine it's going to be hard and the heat at this time of year is difficult for everyone."

SD Worx-Protime will start the day with Lorena Wiebes wearing the leader's red jersey and they have Anna van der Breggen as their GC rider, but Fisher-Black is not expecting her former team to ride in the early part of the race.

"If something goes early then for sure they don't they don't take responsibility, but I think that's fair enough, I think tomorrow it's UAE's race to lose.

With her poker face and equally unreadable body language, Van der Breggen's climbing form remains a mystery, though like Longo Borghini, she's looked strong working for Wiebes.

"It's always hard to know if she's good, like she always looks the same, so it's really hard to tell if she's in shape or not," Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ) said. "For sure, the number one is Elisa. She's really prepared for this race, and it's one of the biggest races for the team, so I think it's really her the favourite. But then you also have a lot of girls actually, the women's bunch has a really high level and I think there are a lot of girls who prepared this race.

"For sure Kasia is looking in good shape, she will be a good challenge for Elisa, I hope to be there as well, I will see."

Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) was almost as noncommittal as Longo Borghini, mentioning how she and the team are in the UAE to "set a baseline for the bigger goals in the Classics season."

She spoke about not getting excited in races, but added, "We came last year, I wasn't prepared for the race and I got a top three GC. So for sure, we come back to try and and do similar." Not only that but she has 2024 Tour de France Femmes stage winner and Queen of the Mountains, Justine Ghekiere, alongside her.

Always near the top of any favourites list on a mountainous race, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, too has very able support at Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto in the form of Neve Bradbury – who has dropped out of GC contention herself – but it is definitely UAE Team ADQ who have the strongest team.

Longo Borghini is supported by Silvia Persico and Karlijn Swinkels, the latter already with a win to her name this year and, with two second place finishes for Lara Gillespie the team will be confident, but keen to hit the top step.

But, as Longo Borghini said when asked how to win on Jebel Hafeet, it's not so much about the team or even the tactics: "It's being the strongest."