Feb 8, 2024 Press conference

GOOD WIEBES

In the Dubai Stage, the Dutch sprinter, led out by the World Champion Lotte Kopecky, repeated her success from the 2023 edition ahead of Barbieri and Consonni.

(©Sprint Cycling Agency)

Dubai Harbour, 8 February 2024 – Lorena Wiebes proved to be the fastest finisher on the 122km Dubai Stage, sponsored by Dubai Sports Council, which took the peloton from Miracle Garden to Dubai Harbour, outsprinting former Track World Champions Rachele Barbieri and Chiara Consonni. That victory ensured Wiebes to claim the Red and the Green Jerseys while Uzbek Yanina Kuskova took the lead in the Young Riders and Intermediate Sprints classifications.

The stage winner with H.E. Saeed Hareb, General Secretary of Dubai Sports Council, H.E. Aref Al Awani, General Secretary of Abu Dhabi Sports Council, and Suhail Al-Arifi, Executive Director of the Events Sector at the Abu Dhabi Sports Council

STAGE RESULTS
1 – Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx), 122km in 2h59’11”, average speed 40.852 km/h
2 – Rachele Barbieri (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) s.t.
3 – Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) s.t.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1 – Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx)
2 – Rachele Barbieri (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) at 4″
3 – Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) at 6″

Engineer Bassel Ibrahim, Director of Right of Way department in Road and transport Authority Dubai, awarded the Red Jersey to Lorena Wiebes

THE OFFICIAL JERSEYS

The leader jerseys of the UAE Tour Women are provided by ALÉ

Red Jersey, leader of the General Classification, sponsored by Al Ain Water – Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx)
Green Jersey, leader of the Points Classification, sponsored by Tadweer – Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx) – worn by Rachele Barbieri (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
White Jersey, Best Young Rider, sponsored by Burjeel Holdings – Yanina Kuskova (Tashkent City Professional Cycling Team)
Black Jersey, leader of the Intermediate Sprint Classification, sponsored by ALDAR – Yanina Kuskova (Tashkent City Professional Cycling Team) – worn by Alice Palazzi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo)

Brigadeer Juma Bin Swaidan, Deputy Director of the General Traffic Department, with the Green Jersey Lorena Wiebes

PRESS CONFERENCE
Speaking in the press conference, the stage winner and Red Jersey Lorena Wiebes said: “It’s great to already have a win for the first time this season. It’s really important to be supported by a team like SD Worx for winning a race like today’s. It’s been a great feeling also to be celebrated on stage and I’m looking forward to wearing the leader’s jersey tomorrow. It’s quite fantastic to win in Dubai and to have the big buildings in the background. This time, I even came a bit earlier to do some sightseeing of the city. Some of my team-mates went sky diving and said they had a great experience. Maybe I’ll try next year. Tomorrow in the desert it could be windier so we can expect some echelons in the long long straight road. There were some echelon attempts today and that made the average speed faster than last year’s, also because we went a bit more out of the city. The peloton was doing 44kph in the first hour as we started with tailwind. I want to win all the sprint stages and I hope Lotte [Kopecky] will do well up to Jebel Hafeet. We feel ready for winning all the stages as a team“.

White and Black Jersey holder Janina Kuskova said: “My goal today was to break away to win the intermediate sprints and the time bonus that goes with it. I was successful on the first sprint but I worked too hard before the second sprint to completely reach my goal. Now my goal is to keep the white jersey till the end of the UAE Tour Women“.

Bruno Dsouza, Regional COO-Dubai & NE at Burjeel Holdings, with the White Jersey Yanina Kuskova

STATISTICS

Fourth Dutch win out of 5 stages run in UAE Women Tour’s history so far. The previous one came last year from Charlotte Kool (stages 1 and 4) and the same Lorena Wiebes (stage 2).
Lorena Wiebes is the first rider in UAE Tour Women’s history with 4 stage podiums. Last year she scored a hat-trick of podiums with a win in stage 2, a 2nd in stage 1 and a 3rd in stage 4.
At 40.852 kph, stage 1 is the fastest in UAE Tour Women’s history, beating the 40.131 kph of last year’s stage 4.
Lorena Wiebes’ last win was stage 5 of the Simac Ladies Tour last year, 151 days ago.

Kifah Sbeitan, Vice President-Community Management at ALDAR, with the Black Jersey Yanina Kuskova

TOMORROW’S STAGE
STAGE 2, AL MIRFA (BAB AL NAJOOM)-MADINAT ZAYED, 113 KM – MODON STAGE

The Route

The stage of the desert. It starts from Al Mirfa on the Arabian Gulf coast and crosses a large portion of desert (over 60 km) to Madinat Zayed. There are wide, straight roads punctuated by sequences of roundabouts once you arrive in the built-up area.

Final kilometres

The last 10 km are on a wide straight road.