On Thursday, Lorena Wiebes will start the fourth edition of the UAE Tour Women as the race's outstanding winner. Of the event's three editions to date, the SD Worx-Protime rider has won six stages, winning all three flat days in 2025 to kick off what was her best season to date, and the odds against a repeat will be short when the race gets underway in Al Mirfa this week.
Last year the Dutch woman was absolutely dominant, not only winning 25 times and taking her career tally to 118, but unbeaten in a sprint finish. She then added the world gravel title and two more rainbow jerseys on the track to her palmarès. With this year's UAE Tour offering the usual mix of three clear-cut opportunities for the fast-women ahead of Sunday final stage culminating with the ascent of Jebel Hafeet, Wiebes seems almost certain to add to her tally of victories in the coming days.
It's not just Wiebes' raw power and sprinting prowess that has brought her success in the Emirates. Crosswinds blew last year's second stage apart, resulting in Wiebes winning sprint from a group of only six riders, and that aspect along with winning opportunities keeps her returning to the UAE for more.
"We have a lot of sprint up opportunities but also that there's chance of echelons, so that's also nice," Wiebes told Cyclingnews ahead Wednesday's pre-race press-conference.
"I started on the first row of the echelon stage [last year], because it was less than one kilometre neutral, the rest of my team was standing more at the back, and they never made it to the front. So that's really important, but also you just need to have to focus in the race. And it's also important to have a good lead out."
With team mate Anna van der Breggen starting the race for the first time, the team will have split responsibilities, but after starting her season at the Tour Down Under two weeks ago, Barbara Guarischi returns to her role as Wiebes' lead out in chief.
"She always is in the right position in the sprint or drops me off in the right position," Wiebes said of the Italian. "In the last years we have said we will do our own way, and the team just focus on keeping the speed high in the peloton. But now also with Anna here, she showed us in Vuelta last year that she can also be really important in a lead out, and that she has the power to do it. So we need to find a bit of balance, not too much work for her for the GC, and how we can can use the team in the best way.
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"It's good now that the Jebel Hafeet stage is on the last day, because normally, as a sprinter, you think maybe I save a bit for the next day because I still need to sprint. Now it's different, now you we can go all out, because it's the last day."
While she insists otherwise, the idea of her holding back on the mountain has never been in evidence. Two years ago, when Lotte Kopecky won on Jebel Hafeet wearing the rainbow bands, Wiebes was working for her well up the climb, showing just how versatile a rider she is.
"I think it's of course partly genetic," Wiebes explains. "You really need to find the balance, I think in '24 there was a period that I didn't have that, or a bit less the balance. Every year it's a bit of a risk to try to improve in the climbing part and not lose too much on the sprinting part, so that we will find out really soon, I guess. But it's for me the good thing is that if I feel that I lose some sprint power, that I can also more easy can gain it back if I focus more on the sprint trainings."
Wiebes was presented in Abu Dhabi as one of the race's top riders (Image credit: Getty Images)
The first sprinting opportunity for Wiebes is likely to come on Thursday's opening stage, a pan flat 111km starting on the coast at Al Mirfa and heading into the desert for a finish at Madinat Zayed, where she won a stage in 2024. And while the race is well known for crosswinds ripping the peloton to pieces, if the forecast tailwind materialises we'll have a fast race with a big group finish.
Among her rivals will be former team mate Charlotte Kool, who won two stages here in 2023, has since finished behind Wiebes twice and is starting her first full season with Fenix-Premier Tech. Riding for Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto, Chiara Consonni will also be keen to convert four previous stage podiums into a win and there are plenty of other sprinters sure to be competing for glory.
Despite her prodigious 2025, last year's success will not weigh heavily on Wiebes' shoulders when she lines up for the opening day on Thursday.
"There will be a point that I will be beaten in a sprint and probably the media thinks a lot about that," she admitted. "But then for me just focus on the good things and keep on improving and keep on being the best version that I can be."
Owen Rogers is an experienced journalist, covering the sport for various magazines and websites for more than 10 years.
Initially concentrating mainly on the women's sport, he has covered hundreds of race days on the ground and interviewed some of the sport's biggest names.
Living near Cambridge in the UK, when he's not working you'll find him either riding his bike or playing drums.
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