Stage 4: Al Ain Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium -> Jebel Hafeet
After three days for the sprinters, the final stage at the UAE Tour Women saw the peloton take on a flat route before the now typical grand-finale of the ten kilometre long Jebel Hafeet climb. Having navigated the previous days well as a unit, Team Picnic PostNL’s attention turned to setting up Italian climbing finisher Eleonora Ciabocco for the ascent; where she could give it her all to the line.
Some good work by the sprint group dropped Ciabocco and Pfeiffer Georgi together on the lower slopes as the peloton thinned down as the climb ramped up. A strong pace was set at the front and at around six kilometres to go, some strong attacks were made and a group of six went clear. Ciabocco found herself in a group behind, but rode with a mature head on her shoulders and at a tempo she could maintain all the way to the top. Ultimately catching some riders ahead and finishing in sixth place on the stage, taking home the same result in the overall standings plus the white jersey as best young rider.
Ciabocco reflected: “Today the team did a really good job keep me safe and fresh. In the end there were no echelons but we were ready to created something if the wind was strong enough, but nothing happened. The rest of the girls put me and Pfeiffer in a good position at the start of the climb. From there, we just had to follow the best. I think it was a good start of the season for us, and we now have a good base to continue to improve from. The team did a great job from the first stage onwards to look after me, so I’m really proud of them and we could end with a nice result on the GC and a jersey win.”
