After the final stage of the UAE Tour Women, second-placed Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM) stood on the podium more times than even the race winner Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime).
The 21-year-old climber had finished runner-up overall and won the white jersey for the best U23 rider, and this also put her into the lead of both the UCI Women’s WorldTour overall and U23 rankings.
Bradbury hadn’t given the season-long classifications much thought before Saturday’s queen stage to Jebel Hafeet, but her second-place finish combined with her results from the Tour Down Under – a third overall – and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race – 15th – would put her in the purple of classification leader.
"Last night, I realised that I could get the WorldTour leader's jersey," Bradbury told Cyclingnews after the podium ceremony on the Abu Dhabi Breakwater.
To achieve this, Bradbury only had to get safely through the last day. Unusually for the UAE, it was raining quite a bit during the stage, and there were a few crashes along the way to the bunch sprint finish.
The falls saw several major names caught up, including fourth-placed Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) in the final kilometre, but Bradbury came through unharmed and could add a white, purple, and light blue jersey to her collection.
Defending the Women's WorldTour lead is not a priority for Bradbury, though: She is looking towards the stage races later in the season instead of the spring classics.
"I will miss quite a few of the next WorldTour races, so it's likely to change. But it's nice to have it," Bradbury concluded with a smile.
Bradbury now lies top of the pile on 678 points thanks to a big 360-point haul from her time in the UAE where she edged ever closer to her debut pro victory with a second place on the Jebel Hafeet queen stage.
She sits 158 points up on Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ), who placed second at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and took fifth at the Tour Down Under. Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), who won the overall down under, is a further six points back on 514.
