The second day of racing at this year's UAE Tour Women might have been chaotic, with crashes in among a seething peloton marring the day, but it was also predictable. Lorena Wiebes, the world's best sprinter, won again.
This is the fourth edition of the race, and in its short history, Wiebes has won eight of the 14 stages. And counting. Saturday's stage 3 is likely to end in another sprint, and only a fool would bet against her.
During Friday's 145km stage 2 between the Dubai Police Academy and Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Wiebes' SD Worx-Protime team set about retrieving a four-woman breakaway which had gained more than six minutes' lead.
Only after the race was back together and inside the final 15km did the chaos begin, with multiple teams trying to set up their sprinter. As the road narrowed for the final, Wiebes and her lead-out woman, Barbara Guarischi, were forced back, and the Italian had to work to regain their position.
"At one point I think, going into the corner with one half kilometres to go I don't know if we're gonna make it to the front ever again," Wiebes said after receiving her GC leader's red jersey.
"But I also know that she's [Guarischi] not giving up, and that's why I knew I had to follow her into that last corner. It's really important to have a rider like this, who keeps on fighting and gives it all for the team."
Despite Femke Markus' late crash, there were plenty of smiles at the SD Worx minibus, Guarischi excitedly reliving the chaos with Anna van der Breggen and Sport Director Danny Stam while the mechanic loaded bikes into a van. The Italian then spoke with Cyclingnews.
"Wow! The final was crazy, crazy," she said. "I think that the girls did an amazing job to control all day the four riders in the breakaway, and in the final we say, 'girls, you do the job before, me and Lorena we stay together.'
"It was really a big mess in the final. Between the 600m [to go] corners, I remember we exited that corner, I think in position 30, we were so far behind. And I looked up, and I saw Koch [Franziska Koch, FDJ United-SUEZ] in the front. I say, 'Fuck! Now we have to go!' So actually I did 600m all out, and then I dropped Lorena to 200, 230m and then she could open up her sprint."
Not only was the victory Wiebes' 120th professional win since the Dutch champion turned pro with Parkhotel Valkenburg in 2018, but it also extended a run in which she has been unbeaten in sprint finishes since the start of 2025. As it stands, you wouldn't be ridiculed if you predicted that run lasting until the end of this year.
Guarischi joined the Dutch squad in 2023, the same time as Wiebes, after spells racing for Movistar and Canyon-SRAM, among others. She's an accomplished sprinter herself, winning nine races, including a stage of the Giro, the World Cup race Spakassen Giro and, in 2024, a stage of the the WorldTour level Simac Ladies Tour. That was her most recent win, though, and more often than not, she can be found as the final leadout deluxe for Wiebes.
"To do a lead-out is like when you are in sparkling water, and you are a small bubble while everybody is shaking. So you need to stay in the centre of this lot of chaos with freezing blood, and actually to find always a gap. When everything is moving, you need to stay calm, because if you panic, then you are lost," she explained.
"When I enter the last kilometre, I cannot hear; you enter in like a tunnel where you are focused only on Lorena and me, I can hear only her voice. It's something that I cannot really explain. I'm really focused, not even looking in front, because I never saw the finish line, but I always look at the people that I have in front.
"I always say that if you do it 100 times, there will be no one time the same, you cannot predict. You can predict the wind, you can predict these small details, but you cannot predict exactly how it will go. So once you are there, you see, and that's the strength of the last lead-out man or woman, I think.
"I'm not strong enough, actually, so I need to have the skill to compensate; that's what I found out in my whole career, but I'm actually happy because working with Lorena is not a sacrifice. I do it with pleasure."
