Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) has taken her first World Tour race podium after an epic attacking ride, for over 100km, on stage 2 at UAE Tour and is now 2nd overall.
The crosswinds split the stage to pieces, with Gillespie starting the race, from the gun, in team pursuit style; flying at the front and helping split the race almost immediately the field passed through kilometre zero for the start proper.
That aggression quickly pulled cleared a five-rider breakaway, which gain over a minute on the first chasing group on a day when the field was decimated.
Gillespie took 3rd in the sprint finish, taking her podium result behind race leader Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime) and Lily Williams (Human Powered Health).
It was a significant day for Gillespie's team as it had three riders in the five-strong breakaway, including climber and general classification hope, Elisa Longo Borghini, who gained over a minute on her rivals.
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The only other Irish rider in the race, Mia Griffin (Roland), who was 4th yesterday, finished in 74th place today. She was in a large group some 7:32 down.
How it unfolded
Immediately the race began, with very strong crosswinds blowing, Gillespie could be seen at the front driving the pace with some of her UAE Team ADQ team mates.
And the damage was done almost instantly; the peloton in one long long line, with the breeze coming from the right and riders soon being spat out the back.
Wiebes takes Stage 2 of the UAE Tour, on a day where brutal headwinds caused havoc! pic.twitter.com/KNXtdFwd0g
— Eurosport (@eurosport) February 7, 2025
Up front, the peloton began to split into echelons and then a group of four pulled clear. It included Gillespie and two of her UAE Team ADQ team mates Elisa Longo Borghini and Karlijn Swinkels.
They were initially joined by just one other rider - American Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) - with those four riding up and over and their gap opening.
However, there was initially a small chasing group behind and just before the gap to the leaders got too big, stage 1 winner and race leader, Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime) jumped across, to make it five up front.
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As the leaders worked away - with the majority of that work being done by Gillespie and her two team mates - the peloton was continuing to split behind them.
With just 11km of racing completed, and 100km remaining, the five leaders had 16 seconds on what remained of the peloton and 44 seconds on a large second chase group.
It would stay that way for the next 10km and, shortly after that, the gap to the five leaders was done to just 11 seconds and it looked like they might be reeled in.
However, with the crosswind a major factor, and the breakaway working well, the gap was up to 30 seconds with 80km to go, as a headwind section approached.
Less than 5km later, that gap was just above one minute, with an intermediate sprint to come at 77km. At that sprint, Longo Borghini, took the sprint, uncontested, and collected the three-second time bonus on offer.
And by the 70km to go marker - with a breakaway having been clear for 40km - the gap had jumped to 2:50 and soon up to 3:15, with about 60km remaining.
The remains of the peloton managed to close that gap by about 40 seconds - to 2:25 - over the next 10km, though Gillespie and her other breakaway companions were continuing to work well up front.
With 43km to go, the breakaway did not contest the intermediate sprint and by that point the gap between the leaders and the remains of the peloton was down to 1:50.
And with 30km remaining, that gap was down to 1:10, with a second large chasing group at 2:08 and another group at 3:34.
The breakaway managed to hold the advantage to just above one minute before it dipped below that marker for the first time with 22.5km remaining.
The remains of the peloton was trimmed back to just 30 riders, with FDJ Suez and SD Worx doing much of the chasing. But the leaders doggedly worked away, getting the gap back up to just above one minute and holding it there as they raced into the final 20km.
Up front, with just under 18km to go, Gillespie was looking like she was feeling the pressure up front, having worked hard for her team from the gun, though the gap was back up to 1:10.
However, Gillespie continued to work away, riding through as the gap was back to 1:20 with 6km to go; the chasers looking just as fatigued as the breakaway women.
And that's the way it stayed; the breakaway arriving at the finish in Al Mirfa, after 111km of racing, some 1:26 on the chasers, with Gillespie taking a brilliant 3rd.
