Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) dug deep to win stage 3 of the UAE Tour Women, reeling in and passing Neve Bradbury (Canyon-Sram) to triumph atop Jebel Hafeet and race into the leader’s jersey.
The world champion came from behind after Bradbury’s attack 2.9km from the finish of the stage, gradually riding back to the Australian’s wheel before shooting past late on to take her first win of the season. Mavi Garcia (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) rounded out the podium, finishing solo at 31 seconds down.
Kopecky had made her way across to Bradbury just 600 metres from the line, immediately heading to the front of the select group to set up the finish. In the end, her burst of speed in the final 200 metres was too much for her rival, and so she pushed on to grab her first win of the 2024 season and with it the race lead.
“It’s the first one ever,” Kopecky said of the first summit finish stage victory of her career. “Crazy. I was really motivated and wanted to see how far I could go on this climb. I dreamed of winning this stage and to do it is very good for the confidence.
“I went kilometre by kilometre because I know on this climb your legs always hurt. In 30 seconds it can go from a good rhythm to blowing up, When the Canyon girl went, I was in a bit of a panic but I could find my rhythm. I came closer again and it looked like I could make it.
“We are here for perp to go into Classics season so it’s good for confidence to know the shape is good and that we can improve more.”
How it unfolded
At the Police Museum in the centre of Al Ain, a sizeable crowd saw the peloton off for a 128-kilometre stage culminating in the finishing climb to Jebel Hafeet, 10.8 kilometres with an altitude gain of 928 metres, much of the climb having a gradient of more than 8%, the steepest ramp at 11% three kilometres from the finish line.
Aude Biannic (Movistar Team) was the first rider to break away after 15 km of racing, and Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez) tried to go on a solo chase, but they were both caught again soon. Le Net attacked a second time with 103 km to go, and this time she got away, building a lead of over a minute.
The Frenchwoman won the first intermediate sprint at the UAE University after 39.7 km while Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) beat Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes (both Team SD Worx-Protime) to the two-second bonification still up for grabs.
Linda Zanetti (Human Powered Health) bridged to Le Net after the intermediate sprint, but the gap was now down to ten seconds, and the…
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