Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) has emerged from the UAE Tour with her first podium in a World Tour race, her first classification win and a top 10 on today's final stage.
The Irish woman, riding what was her team's home race, also supported team mate Elisa Longo Borghini to overall victory. Indeed, Gillespie was instrumental in helping the Italian national champion capture the race outright.
The Irish rider added she was especially pleased with her performance in the crosswinds of stage 2, saying she had only experienced echelons once in her career before this week, making her performance in the breakaway over 100km even more remarkable
She claimed 9th on the final stage today - some 128km starting and finishing in Abu Dhabi - after it came down to a bunch sprint, won by Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime).
Advertisement
The unstoppable European champion was taking her third stage win of the 2025 edition and has now won over half the stages of the race since it began three years ago.
Absolutely unreal power ?
Lorena Wiebes of @teamsdworx rode away from her rivals with apparent ease to win Stage 4 of the @uae_tour Women, her third victory of the race.
________
?? #UAETour pic.twitter.com/v0oTaXdhJv— Velon CC (@VelonCC) February 9, 2025
For Gillespie, the four-stage event was a fantastic start to her first full season as a World Tour rider, with her 8th place on stage 1, 3rd place on stage 2, and the manner of her attacking from the gun in the crosswinds on that second stage, by far the highlight.
That she also picked up the intermediate sprints classification was a mark of her team's dominance. The Irish rider amassed points in that stage 2 breakaway of five riders, three of whom were from UAE Team ADQ.
Related News
Gillespie collected up more points yesterday when making sure she mopped up the points and time bonuses on offer as a blocking tactic for her team leader.
“I’m proud of finishing the UAE Tour Women with a top 10 in the final stage. The priority was to retain Elisa’s red jersey. We worked on securing Silvia’s second place overall too," Gillespie said of her two team mates finishing 1st and 2nd overall.
"I think I’m still kind of a mixture between sprinting and riding in echelons. It was actually only my second time doing echelons. I really enjoyed that day.
"I’m 100 per cent eager to race the UAE Tour Women again, it’s a great feeling to have the support of the home team and all the people here. We’ve had an amazing week”.
Mia Griffin (Roland) also enjoyed a confidence-building start to her season as she was 4th on the opening stage, in a bunch finish. She placed 18th today and has again proven she can contend in the sprints at this level.
Longo Borghini won the race overall by making the stage 2 breakaway with Gillespie, gaining 1:26 on her nearest rivals, before winning solo yesterday atop Jebel Hafeet, with Silvia Persico making it a team 1-2 and moving in to 2nd place overall.
Longo Borghini finished 2:06 ahead of her team mate in the final standings, with Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) taking 3rd overall at 2:08.
As well as winning the intermediate sprints classification, Gillespie was also 3rd in the points classification and only finished outside the top 10 on one of the four stages, to Jebel Hafeet.
