Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
The 2025 UAE Tour Women began in the same way as last year, with European champion Lorena Wiebes taking a dominant sprint victory at Dubai Harbour, the first stage of the four-day event in its third annual staging.
Wiebes outsprinted her Dutch compatriots Charlotte Kool and 20-year-old Nienke Veenhoven, continuing her streak of impressive sprint finishes over recent seasons and wearing the Red jersey, as happened last year, too.
"I'm really happy to win again and finish off the work of the team," Wiebes said at the press conference after finishing the 149-kilometre distance from the Dubai Police Officer's Club to Dubai Harbour.
"It was a bit chaotic in the sprint like always but we were able to sprint. I first want to thank my teammates and tell them that I'm still the fastest at the moment.
"We wanted to control the whole day. We entered the last corner in a perfect position and I still had my lead out with me. They gave me a good lead out and dropped me off at a good point for sprinting. Charlotte came with speed from the back. It forced me to go all out to the finish. It's nice to have many sprinters here and we can battle it together".
Wiebes is a dominant force in the UAE since the first event was held in 2023. Thursday's stage victory was her fourth in the country, after taking the second stage then as well as the first two stages last year.
The stage featured a long breakaway by Cristina Tonetti, Sylvie Swinkels, and Linda Laporta, who were eventually caught with three kilometres to go. Italian rider Tonetti, however, claimed the satisfaction of wearing the first Black jersey of the UAE Tour Women as the leader of the Intermediate Sprints classification.
Veenhoven said: "It's special to make the top three because you really needed to sprint today. I'm proud of the girls how we did the sprint together. We made it quite long, I just trusted my teammates. At the end, I only had to sprint. Of course, you want to win but it's no shame finishing third behind Lorena and Charlotte. Maybe in the future I can beat them. I'm not there yet but I hope to close the gap."
General Classification
1 – Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx – Protime)
2 – Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic PostNL) at 4″
3 – Nienke Veenhoven (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) at 6″
