Race leader Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) sprinted to a third successive victory on stage 3 of the UAE Tour Women, though her rivals pushed her right to the line in what was the closest sprint yet.
Red jersey Wiebes crossed the finish line at the Abu Dhabi Breakwater first after beating Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) and Amalie Dideriksen (Cofidis) in the sprint. Though Wiebes remains unbeaten in this race, Gillespie crossed the line less than a bike length behind the winner in a tight finish by the dominant Dutchwoman's standards.
After the early breakaway had been caught with 40km to go, Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly) went on a solo attack. The Luxembourger stretched her advantage to 1:39 at one point but was caught within the final 5km.
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Wiebes was left without a lead-out after Barbara Guarischi had to keep her in position on the penultimate kilometre, but the Dutch sprint star surfed the wheels on the finishing straight and launched with 200 metres to go to win.
"I lost Barbara, so I needed to find my way by myself and went through the wind quite a lot before I could start my sprint, so it was a hard one. But the team did an amazing job all day long to chase the breakaway, so we had to finish it off again, and again it was a chaos sprint," said Wiebes.
With the third victory in as many days, the 26-year-old has taken her winning tally in the Emirates to nine and her total number of career victories to 121.
"It’s amazing to start the season like this. It’s a great start of the year, and we can be happy about it," she finished.
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Wiebes keeps the red jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
GC contender Marlen Reusser (Movistar) did not start the stage, having crashed in the final of stage 2 on Friday.
Sara Luccon (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and Sonia Rossetti (Vini Fantini-BePink) both tried to get a breakaway going in their fight for the intermediate sprint jersey, but they had no success in a fast first hour. Zoe Bäckstedt (UAE Team ADQ) won the first intermediate sprint near the Yas Marina Circuit after 29km of racing, and only then did a breakaway form.
April Tacey (Hitec Products-Fluid Control) and Luccon attacked first and were quickly joined by Rossetti, her teammate Gaia Segato, and Luccon’s teammate Elisa De Vallier. This break of five had a gap of 3:09 minutes halfway through the 121-kilometre stage, but their advantage had been reduced to 1:40 minutes at the start of the bridge from Abu Dhabi Island across the mangroves to Umm Yifeenah Island with 45km to go.
Berton launched her first attack in the crosswinds on the bridge, but although she didn’t get away, the high pace quickly reduced the gap to the breakaway, and they were caught 40km from the line. Berton soon attacked again, and this time she was let go. Monica Castagna (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) went on the chase but never reached the 24-year-old and was caught with 25km to go, just before the intermediate sprint at Qasr al Hosn. Behind Berton, Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) was second in the intermediate sprint, taking the lead in that classification and the black jersey.
Berton leading solo (Image credit: Getty Images)
Still 1:15 minutes ahead at Qasr al Hosn, Berton’s lead slipped away, and when she was only 22 seconds ahead with 7km to go, it was clear she would be caught. After reeling in Berton, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) led the peloton almost single-handedly before Kim Le Court-Pienaar led the AG Insurance-Soudal train to the front 2.5km from the finish.
Uno-X Mobility took over at the 2km mark, then Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and Movistar briefly came to the front before FDJ United-Suez opened their own lead-out train on the right side of the road just before the flamme rouge, with Cofidis coming alongside on the final kilometre.
Koch led out Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ United-Suez), but Wiebes and Gillespie had found their way to the Italian’s wheel and sprinted past. Gillespie came alongside Wiebes on the last 70 metres, but the Dutchwoman was still half a bike length ahead at the finish line. In their slipstream, Dideriksen sprinted to third, just ahead of Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Guazzini.
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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