UAE Tour Women 2024: Longo Borghini and Wiebes back, Kool cancels at short notice - these are the favourites
Sebastian Lindner
· 07.02.2024
Kool (Team dsm-firmenich - PostNL) cheered at the start and finish, while Wiebes (SD Worx - Protime) secured the second stage. Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) won the mountain arrival and thus also the tour. As the route is essentially unchanged this year, at first glance there is nothing to prevent a repeat of a similar outcome, especially as the successful riders who started the season at the Tour Down Under and successfully opened in Spain are not present in Arabia.
UAE Tour Women 2024 - the route at a glance
- Stage 1: Dubai Miracle Garden - Dubai Harbour, 122 km (flat)
- Stage 2: Al Mirfa - Madinat Zayed, 113 km (flat)
- Stage 3: Al Ain - Jebel Hafeet, 128 km (mountain arrival)
- Stage 4: Abu Dhabi Louvre - Abu Dhabi Breakwater, 105 km (flat)
20 teams are competing in the UAE Tour, with only Visma | Lease a Bike and AG Insurance - Soudal missing from the Women's World Tour.
These are the favourites for the UAE Tour Women
After Kool had already travelled to the Emirates, but has now had to withdraw due to illness, Lorena Wiebes is the prime contender for victory in the three flat stages. The Dutchwoman celebrated twelve victories last year. Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) is now likely to be her closest rival in the bunch sprint. In addition to a stage win at last year's Giro Donne, the 24-year-old Italian also impressed at the end of the season, winning the Tour of Chongming Island in China.
In Georgia Baker, Liv AlUla Jayco also has a fast woman with her, as does Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health). Rachele Barbieri (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) should get her chance in the bunch sprints as Kool's replacement.
In addition to Longo Borghini, the second and third-placed finishers from last year will be particularly keen to get back into the fight for the overall standings. Longo Borghini and her team-mate Gaia Realini were separated by just seven bonus seconds in 2023. Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) was more than a minute behind, but is likely to play a role again this year.
Bauernfeind is the German trump card
Of course, this also applies to world champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx - Protime), who is competing in the desert for the first time and, like the Lidl-Trek duo, is celebrating her season debut. The Belgian all-rounder proved last year that she can also hold her own on long mountains - or make up a few lost seconds in the sprints.
Former champion Mavi Garcia, new captain of Liv AlUla Jayco, is also likely to want to have a say when it comes to overall victory. The 40-year-old Spaniard has made a good start to the season in Spain. Erica Magnaldi is the second ace in the UAE Team ADQ, should Persico weaken. Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL) should get a little more support without Kool in the team and thus also play a good role.
And then there is Ricarda Bauernfeind. The 23-year-old from Eichstätt, whose star has risen with a stage win at the Tour de France Femmes, is the trump card for the German team Canyon//SRAM and, like many of her rivals, is fresh from the training camp. Alongside team-mate Justyna Czapla, Lisa Klein (Lidl-Trek), Lea Lin Teutenberg (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team), Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health) and Hannah Ludwig (Cofidis), who will all find themselves in support roles, she is one of six Germans at the UAE Tour.
UAE Tour Women 2024 - TV broadcast and live stream
The Tour Down Under Women from 8 to 11 February will be shown live on Discovery Plus and Eurosport. Eurosport 2 will be showing the last two hours of the race on TV from around 11.50am. The same applies to the live stream on Discovery Plus and Eurosport.
