9th February – Stage 4: Abu Dhabi – Abu Dhabi
The final day of racing at the UAE Tour Women saw a controlled race and sprint finish in the finale. Despite some attacks and a few nervous moments in the wind, the race came back together in the final few kilometres. Team Picnic PostNL moved up well ahead of the sprint, looking to position fast finisher Charlotte Kool. Going under the flamme rouge the team were well together but into the headwind in the final, the bunch fanned across the road and things became hectic. Unfortunately the team couldn’t get into a position to go for it in the sprint, and a crash just in front of her saw Rachele Barbieri go down, but thankfully she was able to finish and remount the stage. With no changes on GC, Pfeiffer Georgi ends the race with a strong tenth place overall.
Speaking after the stage road captain Georgi said: “Today we made sure we were ready for echelons as there was a lot of wind during the day, but in the end it came down to a sprint. The final was really messy and because of the headwind there was a lot of chaos in the final 500 metres where Charlotte got boxed and wasn’t able to sprint but we are keen to keep building for the next races of the season.”
