Ireland's Mia Griffin (Roland) told stickybottle this week she had prepared well for UAE Tour and was very keen to get going and the Kilkenny woman has now put in one of the performances of her career on the opening stage today.
Sprinting against some of the fastest riders on the world, and after 149km of racing, Griffin finished 4th on the opening stage, won in a bunch sprint by European champion Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime).
Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic PostNL) was 2nd, with Nienke Veenhoven (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) 3rd and then Griffin. That's one of the best performances of Griffin's career, beaten only by her 3rd place in the one-day World Tour race Tour of Guangxi at the end of the 2023 campaign.
The only other Irish rider in the filed, Lara Gillespie, was on lead-out duties for UAE Team ADQ team mate, Sofie van Rooijen. Though Gillespie took the headwind for her Dutch team mate for an extended period, she still finished 9th as van Rooijen placed 7th, just about nudging past the Irish woman on the line.
Advertisement
Related News
Introducing your stage one race winner for the 2025 UAE Tour Women… @teamsdworx, @lorenawiebes ✅#UAETourWomen #UAETour@AbuDhabiSC @DubaiSC @DubaiHarbour @ihc__official @TAQAGroup @ModonProperties @aldar pic.twitter.com/LdjxktKqCM
— UAE Tour Official (@uae_tour) February 6, 2025
Gillespie had a crash to contend with mid stage and her performance in the final strongly suggests she got away with the nasty fall without sustaining any serious injury.
For Griffin, today was was a big juncture in her career as she starts her second season at World Tour level with Roland. She suffered a prolonged bout of concussion last year - after a racing crash in Belgium at the start of May - but came back in time for the team pursuit at the Olympic Games.
And having focused on increasing her training volume on the road over the winter, she has certainly hit the ground running today with a result she can take a lot of confidence from.
More to come.
