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Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) picked up right where she left off Thursday – by winning.
The Dutch supersprinter stomped to victory on her 2026 season debut at the UAE Tour to continue an unbeaten streak that stretches back through September 7.
Lara Gillespie (UAE ADQ) and Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) took the podium steps Thursday in Madinat Zayed after Wiebes blew away the bunch sprint in the UAE Tour opener.
“It’s a great start to the season, we did a good job as a team in the last 10km,” Weibes said at the finish.
“I knew from two years ago that this was a difficult finish. It’s a long way in a straight line, but we could also use the other teams in the final, and luckily, I found the gap to sprint.”
Judging by the finish Thursday, Wiebes has carried all the crazy sprint form from last year that brought her 25 road victories – and more on the gravel and in the velodrome – into the new season.
The 26-year-old has now won 5 races in 5, and lost only once in 10 starts.
Will anyone be able to stop Wiebes in the next two sprint stages of the four-day UAE Tour? Gillespie, Bäckstedt, and Charlotte Kool (Fenix Premier Tech) won’t have it easy.
The UAE Tour’s defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE ADQ) rolled in with all her main rivals Thursday.
ELB, Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Kim Le Court (AG Insurance Soudal), and former Tour de France champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) will romp up Jebel Hafeet on Sunday for the decisive GC stage.
Jonas Vingegaard, Isaac del Toro, and Remco Evenepoel headline the men’s UAE Tour, starting February 16.
UAE Tour Women stage 1:
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