Gillespie leads team effort as UAE ADQ dominates to win UAE Tour | Video

Lara Gillespie, in the green jersey, leads the way to to the big summit finish on Jebel Hafeet, where her team mate claimed the stage and overall victory (Photo: Tim de Waele-Getty Images)

After getting close to a stage win at UAE Tour stage 3 on Saturday, when she collected her second 2nd place of the race, Lara Gillespie played the role of perfect team mate today as the sprinters gave way to the general classification riders.

Gillespie's team, racing on the road of the country that sponsors them, ended the event with their hoped-for stage victory, and overall title, after Italian national champion, Elisa Longo Borghini, overpowered all-comers on the final climb of Jebel Hafeet.

She took a solo victory by a margin that ensured she also claimed her third overall win on this race, the second World Tour stage race of the season, in four years. And before the road kicked up, allowing Longo Borghini showcase her talents, Gillespie did everything she could for her team mate.

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The Irish woman could be seen on the front, wearing the points classification leader's jersey, helping to chase down the early breakaway and then keep the pace high once those escapees had been recaptured.

And just before the climb to the finish line began, Gillespie contested the intermediate sprint, taking the maximum three seconds time bonus to ensure none of Longo Borghini's rivals could snaffle those seconds for themselves.

In the end, the three seconds on offer, and that Gillespie neutralised by winning the sprint at a canter, were not the deciding factor. For the final 5km of the climb, Longo Borghini surged forward several times with searing attacks.

And though Polish champion Kasia Niewiadoma (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto) stayed with her for the longest, she too was eventually distanced - and then caught and pass by others vying for the GC podium after cracking badly.

In the end, Longo Borghini won the day by 12 seconds from Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco); the 26-year-old Italian putting in an impressive shift up the final climb. Just two seconds later, Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) crossed the line in 3rd place.

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Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime), who led the race this morning after winning the first three stages, was not expected to figure on the climbers' finish today. And so that came to pass; the Dutch rider losing 8:46 and tumbling down the final general classification to 40th.

The top three riders on Sunday's final stage also filled the final GC podium; Longo Borghini winning by 16 seconds from Colonel, with de Vries just a further one second back in 3rd.

The Irish riders in the race - Gillespie and Mia Griffin (Picnic PostNL) - finished side-by-side today, in 90th and 91st, some 16:23 down on the stage winner. They have now banked some very valuable early season racing miles in the legs towards the next goals, mainly one-day races in Europe in coming weeks.

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