Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won stage 1 of the 2026 UAE Tour Women, taking her total number of victories in the Emirati stage race to seven.
After a flat stage to Madinat Zayed, the Dutch champion came through in a somewhat chaotic final to win ahead of Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) and Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto).
Cross-tailwinds made for a fast stage but weren't strong enough to split the race into echelons on their way through the desert.
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In the approach to the finish, Wiebes and her team were positioned well at the front of the peloton but were swamped by the other sprint trains in the final kilometre. Wiebes kept her cool and found a gap between Gillespie and the barriers to launch her winning sprint, taking the first leader's red jersey as well.
"It’s a great start of the season, we did a good job as a team in the last 10km. I knew from two years ago that this was a difficult finish. It is so long in a straight line, but we could also use the other teams in the final, and luckily, I found the gap to be able to sprint," said Wiebes.
Two-time GC winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) brought her team to the front in the run-in and pushed the pace, putting Gillespie in the driving seat with Wiebes lurking behind.
"They did a really good lead-out; they timed it really good. We don’t have our perfect lead-out team here; that’s why we planned to start the lead-out early, and then Barbara and I will find our way. That’s how we could use Team UAE, and it worked out well today," Wiebes explained.
In the sprint, Wiebes stayed out of the wind for as long as possible, staying on the left side of the road in spite of the danger of being boxed in.
"I chose the wheel of Gillespie because I saw that the lead-out train of UAE had a lot of speed. It was a bit of a gamble to choose the left side because if they close the door, you’re not able to sprint," she added. "But on the right it was also a bit stuck with other riders, so I chose the left side, and it was possible to start my sprint."
(Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
Starting in the coastal town of Al Mirfa, the peloton tackled a 111-kilometre opening stage through the Western Desert to the finish in Madinat Zayed.
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The first breakaway included Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly), Monica Castagna (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), and Gaia Segato (Vini Fantini-BePink), but they were quickly brought back again.
Elisa De Vallier (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and Andrea Casagranda (Vini Fantini-BePink) were the next to attack with more than 70km to go, and this duo held an advantage of almost two minutes before the big teams stepped up the pace in the cross-tailwind through the desert.
The break was reeled in with 54km to go, just before the first of two intermediate sprints, where the peloton rolled through at high pace as there were no bonus seconds on offer.
The wind wasn’t strong enough to force echelons, but the high pace led to a stretched-out peloton, and there were several crashes with Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility), Noä Jansen (Liv AlUla Jayco), and Anneke Dijkstra all hitting the deck.
Femke De Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the second intermediate sprint ahead of Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) and Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), giving the Dutch climber a three-second headstart in the GC fight.
Turning around south of Madinat Zayed, 11.6km from the finish, the peloton then closed in on the finish into a headwind. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) suffered a mechanical, but quickly made her way back to the pack, losing no time in the end.
The SD Worx-Protime lead-out train kept Wiebes at the front but relinquished control on the penultimate kilometre as Longo Borghini brought her UAE team to the fore, swinging off under the flamme rouge.
Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime) accelerated, but quickly stopped without Wiebes on her wheel. The Dutchwoman was waiting behind Gillespie, who started her sprint with less than 200 metres to the line. Wiebes tried to find the gap alongside the barriers, leading to a touch of wheels with Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health), but fortunately, neither rider came down.
Into the last 100 metres and Wiebes had powered past Gillespie to win the stage, with Bäckstedt just pipping Coles-Lyster to the line for third place.
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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