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).
“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.”
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