For the third time in four editions, it was Elisa Longo Borghini who claimed the Unity Trophy at the UAE Tour Women. The Italian national champion prevailed on the traditional uphill finish at Jebel Hafeet, breaking her rivals’ resistance after a series of attacks, the final one coming with 3 km to go. It was there that the UAE Team ADQ rider dropped Kasia Niewiadoma and rode solo to her third career victory on this climb.
The Polish rider, winner of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, was later caught and overtaken by Monica Trinca Colonel and Femke De Vries, who completed both the stage podium and the overall general classification podium.
In the other classifications, Lorena Wiebes successfully defended the Green Jersey, while young Italian riders Eleonora Ciabocco and Sara Luccon claimed the White Jersey and the Black Jersey respectively.
Speaking in the press conference, the winner of the UAE Tour Women Elisa Longo Borghini said: “It means a lot to win the UAE Tour for the third time, moreover for the second time in a row with UAE Team ADQ. It’s the home team! They care about this race. If last year we came fully prepared with a very good shape, this year I had just a regular winter, I worked a lot on my based. Today was my very first all out this year. It was a bit harder to win this year but it tastes very good. Up the climb, I just embraced the game they were playing. It was fun. I was waiting for best moment to attack. When I felt it was a good one, I went. It wasn’t the place where I could drop everybody, but a bit further I looked around and I saw Kasia [Niewiadoma] with a pretty tired face so I hit once more. I was pretty sure I’d go again alone. I finished at my own pace and I could enjoy the finish. We had a plan this morning to tackle the climb with Karlijn [Swinkels] and Silvia [Persico] but Amanda Spratt attacked a bit earlier than the 4km to go mark. Quickly, everything went chaotic there. I let them play the game and I played mine. I had no reason to panic”.
Runner up Monica Trinca Colonel said: “Having finished fourth last year, I wanted to improve my result and I’m very happy with this second place. I did my best. I normally suffer on the attacks up a climb but today I felt good. I understood that the others weren’t better than me today. My dream now is to win a WorldTour race like the UAE Tour, but for now, this second place is very important for me”.
Third placed Femke De Vries said: “It’s really the best result of my career. I worked the whole winter with the team to be at my best here. The time bonus I got on stage 1 gave me confidence and showed my ambition. Today I knew that if I stayed with Monica [Trinca Colonel], I’d be at least third overall. I’ve tried to close on Elisa [Longo Borghini] but she was too fast”.
The Green Jersey Lorena Wiebes said: “Today we were going to help Anna van der Breggen but she felt sick and the team didn’t want to take any risk. We had Steffi [Häberlin] as our second climb. She did a really good job today and we want be happy with how we performed as a team for the whole week. Three stage wins and the Green Jersey, it’s great!”
The White Jersey Eleonora Ciabocco said: “It’s a very nice feeling to make the final presentation of the UAE Tour. My team positioned me very well at the bottom of the climb. At some point, I was in the second group and I managed to finish in the top 10 and win the White Jersey. It makes it a great start of the season”.
The Black Jersey Sara Luccon said:Â “It’s incredible to win this jersey and share the final podium with the top champions. My goal was to break away to take the first intermediate sprint. Luckily, I managed to stay alone away for about 50km. Once I got brought back, I was hoping that my closest rival on this classification wouldn’t score points and that’s what happened”.
Stage 4 Brief Results
- Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), 156km in 4h13’04”, average speed 36.986 km/h
- Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) at 12″
- Femke De Vries (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) at 14″
Final General Classification
- Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)
- Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) at 16″
- Femke De Vries (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) at 17″
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